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The UN Children's Fund on Thursday called for urgent action to address the child refugee crisis, a day after extraordinary pictures of a Syrian toddler's body washed up on a beach struck a global nerve.
Pictures of 2-year-old Aylan Kurdi's body have gone viral on social media, causing international outrage and frustration at the world community's failure to help desperate families in Syria, where a civil war has claimed more than 250,000 lives since 2011.
"As the migrant and refugee crisis in Europe deepens, these will not be the last shocking images to ricochet around the world on social media, on our televisions screens and on the front pages of our newspapers", Anthony Lake, who directs the agency, said in a press statement.
On Wednesday, Aylan and 11 others drowned after their boat sank en route to a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. Their bodies washed up on the shores of Turkey's tourist destination of Bodrum.
"It is not enough for the world to be shocked by these images. Shock must be matched by action," Lake said. "For the plight of these children is neither by their choice nor within their control. They need protection. They have a right to protection."
He urged countries to protect children through the provision of essential services at all times and to deploy adequate numbers of trained child welfare experts to support children and their families.
He said search and rescue operations must continue not only at sea, but also on land, as families move across countries, and that children's interests should be put above all other interests in decisions made regarding asylum cases.
In the first half of the year, more than 106,000 children claimed asylum in Europe, according to the UN.
"Our hearts go out today to the families who have lost children – off the coasts, on the shores, and along the roadsides of Europe. As the debates on policies proceed, we must never lose sight of the deeply human nature of this crisis", Lake said. - New York
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