UNICEF wants urgent help for all Afghan children who were evacuated without families to another country in the days after the Taliban took Kabul.
According to the United Nations aid agency, 300 children have so far been registered who have left Afghanistan without family. There will probably be more.
“It is a nightmare for these children that they suddenly lost their families in the crisis at the airport and were then taken on an evacuation flight alone,” said Suzanne Laszlo of UNICEF Netherlands. It is not known whether unaccompanied children have also arrived in the Netherlands.
Several countries, including Australia, Germany and Qatar, have reported unaccompanied children on evacuation flights. UNICEF is already helping the children at airports in Germany and Qatar to receive and support them properly. The UN agency also offers aid to other countries.
“It is vital that the children are quickly registered and safely cared for to protect them from abuse, neglect and violence,” UNICEF said in a statement. “During family tracing, children should preferably be taken care of together with acquaintances or in a family situation.”
The organization, therefore, calls on countries not to separate children from friends or acquaintances if there is no other family. According to the UN agency, safe, legal migration routes must also be established to enable family reunification.