In January 2016 the Guardian reported that at least 10,000 refugee and migrant children have gone missing since arriving in Europe.
Many of these minors are feared to be the victims of child trafficking. Each day, more and more unaccompanied minors arrive at Europe’s shores, at risk of a similar fate.
A small grassroots organisation in Co. Dublin called Bray Refugee Solidarity Group have been working on a campaign to call the EU into action.
We spoke to artist, designer and mum, Fiona Carey co-founder of Bray Refugee Solidarity on the crisis.
What was the moment that first grabbed your attention and made you realise that you had to act on behalf of these children?
“We came across an article in the Guardian last Spring and were really shocked and baffled at how 10,000 children could just disappear, how few newspaper articles were being written on it and how little was actually being done to find them or stop this happening. We didn’t know what we could do to help, but we knew we couldn’t do nothing.”
How did the idea for Bray Refugee Solidarity and the 10,000 Missing Children campaign come about?
“Bray Refugee Solidarity came about last Summer at the height of the crisis. We didn’t know how we could make an impact or what area of the crisis we could focus on at the time, but when we read the article about the 10,000 missing children earlier this year, we knew unaccompanied refugee and migrant children would be our focus.”
“There were very few reports in the media about this part of the crisis, but we reached out to a few friends who were able to direct us towards evidence reports and experts in the field. The research for the campaign took a few months, and we were lucky enough to have some friends and contacts, with much more expertise in the area, to look over drafts of the campaign demands and give us feedback.”
Can you tell us a little about you and the two other founders? Have you worked in this kind of area previously?
“Karen’s a musician in the band Wyvern Lingo, Grace works in development education, and I’m an artist and designer. I was very involved with the Yes Equality campaign last year, but none of us had ever worked directly with refugees or run a campaign of this scale before.”
“The thing we really want to impress upon people, though, is that we’re ordinary people – going into this we didn’t have any experience working in politics or running campaigns. We want people to know that they’re more powerful than they realise, they have a voice – politicians need the people more than the people need politicians. If people feel strongly about something, they need to take real action, mobilise others, get out there and demand change. It takes hard work but anything worth achieving always does.”
It’s an ambitious project, how have you managed all the juggling required to pull it off?
“The hardest part has been keeping ourselves motivated, but when you meet up and start talking and reading about the issue again, you realise that doing nothing isn’t an option. It’s been a long process, and just when you think you’re nearly finished, you hit roadblocks and realise you’ve another few weeks’ work ahead!”
By signing this petition, you can help get the message to The Justice and Home Affairs Council of Europe that Ireland will not abandon or forget about these vulnerable children. Please sign this petition to shine a light on these missing children, and the thousands more that will continue to disappear if we don’t do something now.
Watch Hozier, John Connors, Bláthnaid Treacy and Little Green Cars talk about this crisis in a moving video.
Visit 10,000 missing children for more information. Follow the campaign on Facebook and Twitter.
