- publish: 24 November 2017
- time: 11:29 am
- category: International
- No: 5184
Afghan child dies on Serbian-Croatian border
The organization “Medicines Sans Frontiers” has protested after a child has died on the border between Serbia and Croatia. The six-year-old Afghan girl was hit by a cargo train, BIRN reported on Thursday.
The tragedy occurred when the Afghan family tried to cross the border from Serbian side.
MSF tweeted: “Yet another totally preventable death on the “closed” Balkan Road. A 6 y/o kid was hit by a train last night after the family was pushed back from #Croatia. Since January @MSF has counted 7 deaths along the #Serbia #Croatia border, 3 of them kids! What a shameful waste!”
Although Serbian police has not registered the accident, “Alo!” tabloid has reported that the body was found near the railway line by a group of migrants. They took the body and handed it over to the Croatian police, according to the account.
The latest report released by UNHCR underlines the difficult situation of many women and girls’ victims of trafficking and of the more than 15,200 unaccompanied and separated children who have arrived in Europe this year.
Since July, UNHCR staff and partners in Serbia encountered increased numbers of new arrivals, including over 650 people in September, almost half of whom were Yazidi families from Iraq, along with nearly 100 unaccompanied and separated children.
Andrea Contenta, a human rights expert with MSF in Serbia, told BIRN in July that the organization then suspected at least 42 migrants had died along the Balkan route since January. IBNA