OXFAM made urgent appeals today for stronger efforts between agencies reuniting child refugees and their families on their journey into Europe.

The British aid charity called for measures to be put into place immediately after official figures showed the number of minors travelling alone had increased.

Oxfam humanitarian programme manager in Serbia Anna Sambo said: “We urgently need better co-operation between various agencies working with refugees so that when a family loses a child on the road the alarm can be raised and the child found as quickly as possible.

“At the moment we are seeing increasing numbers of children travelling alone.

“The dangerous situation can be a trauma for the vulnerable children.

“We want to ensure a presence to support families, women and children because we don’t want them to be alone on their journey.”

The group found that several children were separated from their families while queuing to cross the border into the country or in refugee processing camps.

While no child-trafficking cases were reported in the area, many refugees complained that they were left to wait for half a day in a queue.

According to reports, two small boys were left alone in the middle of a busy street as their parents searched for another child who had disappeared.

Syrian machine worker Zachariah Kwirah, who travelled to Europe with his two sisters, mother-in-law and three babies said he had to beg to be let into Serbia.

He added: “It was very tough, you say you are not an animal, why were they doing this to us? It gave us the feeling of being animals.”

joanaramiro@peoples-press.com