UN officials have warned that over three quarters of children and young adults seeking asylum in Europe fall prey to torture, rape and other forms of abuse during their journey. Young asylum seekers from Sub-Saharan Africa are particularly at risk of abuse, most probably due to racism, officials from UN children's agency, UNICEF, and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday. Young asylum seekers pay between $1,000 to $5,000 for the journey and when they arrive in Europe, they merely face debt and new risks. Europe continues to struggle with the biggest asylum seeking crisis in its history. In crisis-hit Libya, smugglers operate with relative ease, but many refugees and asylum seekers also sail from Egypt to Italy.

Source: The North Africa Journal September 12, 2017 17:16 UTC