A/HRC/36/51 family will be able to leave, which may lead to the separation of children from their families, leaving children in most cases without any protection. 27. When it comes to denouncing a human rights violation, migrant children may lack proper documentation or not speak the local language. Mostly, they are simply too frightened to report an incident or to speak about the trauma they have endured. They fail to seek help, including medical assistance, for fear of a negative impact on pending decisions on their status or out of fear of arrest or deportation.20 28. Despite the measures taken by the Central American States after the major inflows of Central American migrant children to North America in 2014, the phenomenon continues to grow. In 2015 and 2016 the number of children migrating unaccompanied or with their families increased, as did the number of deportations. According to IOM, the three countries to which the largest numbers of children are returned are El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Increasingly, the children are younger, they are more frequently travelling alone, and the risks they face have increased. 29. Across the European Union, age determination procedures are frequently intrusive and unreliable, and unaccompanied children are often subjected to the same violations as undocumented adults. If they are apprehended, and particularly if they are not recognized as children, unaccompanied children can face detention, 21 deportation, and violence. 22 The authorities treat irregular entry as a criminal activity rather than as mere violation of administrative regulations. In practice, age determination is frequently carried out routinely, without respect for the dignity or rights of the child, and contrary to the principle that it should be a last resort.23 30. In the first nine months of 2015, more than 200,000 children applied for asylum in European Union member States.24 Some of them did not reach their destination. In the same year, nearly 700 children are believed to have died crossing the Mediterranean. 25 Approximately 700 children arrive daily in Europe, many of them exhausted and distressed and some in need of medical assistance. 26 In the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the number of unaccompanied children increased six-fold, from 932 in August 2015 to 5,676 in October of that year. In the first months of 2015, more than 3,000 unaccompanied migrant children applied for asylum in Sweden alone, 27 and more than 30,000 were expected to apply in Germany by the end of 2015. 31. Most countries in Mediterranean Europe act as both transit and destination countries for migrant flows. For example, in 2014, a total of 14,243 unaccompanied migrant children landed in Italy, of whom 3,707 absconded after landing and 10,536 were hosted in centres set up by local municipalities charged with providing reception services. According to IOM, between January and July 2015, a total of 5,459 unaccompanied migrant children entered the country, 27 per cent (1,467) of them from West Africa (the Gambia, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal). Of the 181,436 arrivals in Italy in 2016 via the central Mediterranean route, 28,223, or nearly 16 per cent, were children. Nine out of ten children who crossed the Mediterranean in 2016 were unaccompanied.28 32. In some European countries, large numbers of children go missing from reception centres or disappear from the care of child protection facilities or immigration authorities; 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Source: information provided by the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children to the Advisory Committee, 24 February 2017. Pursuant to article 37 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, migrant children should not be detained. Source: the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants. Source: information provided by the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children to the Advisory Committee, 24 February 2017. Source: Eurostat. UNICEF. Protecting Children on the Move: Briefing Paper (Geneva, November 2015), p. 3. Ibid., p. 4. Source: Swedish Migration Agency. UNICEF, A Deadly Journey for Children: The Central Mediterranean Migration Route (Geneva, February 2017), p. 2. 7