Many fleeing minors arrived alone and now risk being trafficked for the benefit of pedophiles. Caffo: “They only speak Russian or Ukrainian but with Microsoft and Tik Tok we often have facial recognition”
From the terror of dying under bombs to the danger of ending up in the hands of pedophiles or human traffickers. From the horrors of war to those, equally insidious and often irreparable, of being crushed in the mesh of those who want to take advantage of a child.
It is to fight this battle that Telefono Azzurro is engaged on the border between Ukraine and Poland, exactly in Stalowa Wola between Lviv and Lublin. The president of Telefono Azzurro, Professor Ernesto Caffo, also went there to deal with this emergency. Today he went to Warsaw to meet with ministers and heads of local institutions to take stock of the situation. «So far 1.5 million Ukrainian minors have arrived in Poland – he explains on the phone – and for the most part they are very young children, not adolescents, in need of care and assistance. There are also many disabled people who come from Ukrainian institutions ». In Stalowa Wola an initial reception hub has been organized, then the children are placed in specialized centers, in family homes, in the structures of the many associations committed to protecting children.
«But it is a fight against time – continues Caffo – to prevent children from disappearing into thin air. There is a very high risk that they can fall into the clutches of malicious people. In the first wave, the children came together with their families, mothers, grandparents or uncles. But the second and third waves were characterized by the presence of many unaccompanied minors. Who are much more defenseless and vulnerable than the others ».
For this reason, Telefono Azzurro forms a network with associations and institutions that aim to protect children who have fled the conflict, through Missing children, the European Federation for missing and sexually exploited children. You can get help by calling the single European number 116000. The service allows you to report cases of disappearance of children and adolescents. The line is free and is managed in Italy by the Ministry of the Interior through Telefono Azzurro.
“We are experiencing particularly complicated days – concludes Professor Caffo -, also because the support of educators, psychologists and cultural mediators is lacking in the midst of thousands of children who mainly speak only Ukrainian or Russian. But we must not forget the collaboration of companies such as Microsoft and Tik-Tok who are helping us with children’s facial recognition ».
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