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Caribbean kids displaced by storms skyrocket

Published:Saturday | December 7, 2019 | 12:25 AM
A baby sleeps inside a church that was opened up as a shelter for residents who will wait out Hurricane Dorian in Freeport on Grand Bahama, Bahamas, on September 1, 2019. Hurricane Dorian battered Bahamas with Category Five winds, killing at least 65 people and causing US$7 billion of damage.
AP
A baby sleeps inside a church that was opened up as a shelter for residents who will wait out Hurricane Dorian in Freeport on Grand Bahama, Bahamas, on September 1, 2019. Hurricane Dorian battered Bahamas with Category Five winds, killing at least 65 people and causing US$7 billion of damage.

UNITED NATIONS (CMC):

A new report by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says the number of Caribbean children displaced by storms has risen approximately sixfold in the past five years.

The report, released on Friday, says catastrophic tropical cyclones and hurricanes uprooted an estimated 761,000 children in the region between 2014 and 2018, which also was the hottest five-year period on record.

The preceding five-year period, 2009 to 2013, saw some 175,000 Caribbean youngsters displaced, the report says.

“This report is a stark reminder that the climate crisis is a child-rights crisis,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore.

“Children in storm and flood-prone nations around the world are among the most vulnerable to having their lives and rights upended,” she added. “They are already feeling the impacts of climate change, so governments and the international community should act now to mitigate its most devastating consequences.”

The UNICEF report notes that the Caribbean was slammed by a series of catastrophic tropical cyclones or hurricanes between 2016 and 2018, including four Category Five storms.

The agency said it has been providing life-saving assistance for children and families across the Caribbean affected by the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season.

More than 400,000 children were displaced that year alone, the report says.

The report, Children Uprooted in the Caribbean: How Stronger Hurricanes Linked to a Changing Climate Are Driving Child Displacement, warns that without urgent climate action, dislocation levels are likely to remain high in the coming decades.

Therefore, UNICEF is calling on Caribbean governments to put children at the heart of climate-change strategies and response plans, and to protect them from its impacts.

The United Nations agency also urged regional authorities to provide displaced children with protection and access to education, healthcare and other essential services, among other recommendations.