UN agencies flag child migrant abuse, Greenland contraception scandal and worsening hunger

More than 31,000 children arrived in Greece, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria and Malta last year, with over 20,000 of them travelling without a parent or guardian, according to new data released on 7 October 2026 by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in a joint report with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as detailed in a press release. The figure represents a 25 per cent decrease compared to 2024. Separately, UN human rights experts warned against minimizing the forced contraception of Inuit women in Greenland, while FAO called for urgent funding to protect food production in the Near East and North Africa. The three updates highlight overlapping humanitarian pressures. Together, they underscore widening gaps in protection, accountability and food security.

The IOM report documents that one of the main migration routes today runs through the central Mediterranean from Libya and Tunisia to Italy. Of more than 4,600 teenagers and young adults aged 15 to 24 surveyed, nearly half reported physical violence. Among them, 28 per cent said they had been held against their will and 17 per cent reported being forced into work, with almost eight in 10 being male. Most cases of abuse occurred in Libya. The findings point to systemic risks for unaccompanied minors.

One 19-year-old migrant worker from Bangladesh said his boss in Libya took his passport and forced him into slave labour, hitting him when he was considered not to be working hard enough. A 20-year-old woman from Liberia said she was raped in Algeria and forced to work as a cleaner before escaping to Spain while seven months pregnant. IOM spokesperson Kennedy Omondi urged stronger cooperation between European countries and States along migration routes.

“The latest data in our report shows how vulnerable children are subjected to violence and exploitation when safe pathways are limited and they are forced to rely on smugglers,” he said.

IOM Director General Amy Pope also called for action against smuggling and criminal networks.

In Greenland, independent UN human rights experts warned that attempts to downplay the forced contraception of thousands of Inuit women and girls threaten any prospect of genuine redress. Their concerns followed a dissenting report by two former members of an expert group appointed by Greenland’s Government, which concluded there were no empirical grounds to assume that Danish or Greenlandic authorities intentionally and systematically inserted intrauterine devices without consent. Both governments have already recognised the abuses in public care institutions and apologised. The experts urged Denmark to make compensation schemes more accessible linguistically and culturally and to address wider abuses such as forced adoption.

“Their dignity, voices and rights must remain at the centre of all efforts toward truth, justice, healing and reconciliation,” they said.

Meanwhile, FAO reported that more than 45 million people across the Near East and North Africa face crisis-level hunger or worse, as funding shortfalls limit support to food production. In Sudan, where 19.5 million people face high levels of acute food insecurity, only 23 per cent of the $193 million required under the 2026–2028 emergency response plan has been funded. In Yemen, FAO has secured less than one per cent of the $87.9 million needed for 2027. In Lebanon, more than one million people were displaced after the March 2026 escalation, with over 22 per cent of agricultural land reportedly damaged. FAO Deputy Director-General Beth Bechdol said investing early in seeds, livestock, water and other agricultural support can protect livelihoods and prevent hunger from deepening.