Girls as young as 13 are being raped by traffickers are they try to escape conflict

Trafficked children are so desperate to get to Europe that girls as young as 13, warned they will be raped on the journey, are receiving contraceptive injections that can trigger menopause.

“They know they are very likely to be raped en route so they have these injections in Ethiopia or Sudan to not get pregnant,” said Helena Rodriguez, a gynaecologist in Lampedusa, the Italian island that is the landing point for many who cross the sea from Libya. “What they don’t realise is the terrible long-term effects.”

Although the sea crossing is so dangerous that more than 5,000 people drowned last year, the real nightmare for girls travelling alone from Eritrea, Somalia or Nigeria is the journey across the Sahara in Niger and Libya before