UNITED Nations children’s fund Unicef urged governments today to prioritise the safety of children after the latest Mediterranean shipwreck left about 20 people missing and added to a gruesome annual tally.

Among the seven survivors of the New Year’s Eve wreck off the Italian island of Lampedusa was an eight-year-old girl whose mother is among the missing, Unicef said.

The agency noted that an 11-year-old girl found floating off Lampedusa last month was believed to be the lone survivor of a migrant boat that had left Sfax, Tunisia, with about 45 people on board.

According to the International Organisation of Migration’s missing migrant tracker, 2,275 people were unaccounted for in the Mediterranean in 2024, bringing the total number of people missing since 2014 to 31,180.

The vast majority, 24,466, are believed to have died on the perilous central Mediterranean route, which is most often used by smugglers from Libya and Tunisia to ferry desperate people towards Italy.

Unicef called on governments to honour their obligations to refugees under international law and to prioritise the safeguarding of children.

“This includes ensuring safe, legal pathways for protection and family reunification, as well as co-ordinated search and rescue operations, safe disembarkation, community-based reception and access to asylum services,” the agency said in a statement.