Story highlights U.N. says more women and children refugees are seeking safe haven in Europe

Children now account for a third of all refugees and migrants

Europol: around 10,000 unaccompanied migrant children may be unaccounted for

(CNN) More than one third of migrants making the treacherous sea crossing to Greece from Turkey are now children, according to UNICEF.

It's a sharp rise from as recently as six months ago, the U.N. agency said, when 73% of the migration flow was male, and only one in 10 migrants was an accompanied child. Now most are women and children.

"The implications of this surge in the proportion of children and women on the move are enormous -- it means more are at risk at sea, especially now in the winter, and more need protection on land," UNICEF's special coordinator for the refugee and migrant crisis in Europe, Marie-Pierre Poirier, said in a press release.

Perils at sea

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