The number of women and children seeking safety in Europe has overtaken the number of men for the first time since the migrant crisis began, according to figures released by Unicef.
About six in 10 people seeking asylum in Gevgelija on the Macedonia border with Greece in January were women or children.
Last June, children made up one in 10 people registering their intent to seek asylum. That proportion has now increased to more than one in three.
Over that period men have gone from accounting for between 73% and 79% of asylum seekers to 41%. Unicef gave a range for the mid-June figures because adolescents are not always registering as children or unaccompanied due to fear of being detained before reaching their destination.
Macedonian authorities changed the law in June to allow those who registered their intention to seek asylum at the Vinojug transit centre 72 hours to do so.
Although a small number will complete their asylum request in the country, most will attempt to continue their journey into the rest of Europe. As a result, it is one of the only indicators of the demographics of migration flows as they are currently happening.
“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,” said Marie Pierre Poirier, Unicef’s special coordinator for the refugee and migrant crisis in Europe.
The reversal in demographics has been due to a much more rapid decrease in the number of men crossing the border over winter than that among women or under-18s.
Unicef also says a third of those attempting the dangerous sea crossing between Greece and Turkey are children.
The news comes during international concern about the number of unaccompanied refugees travelling through Europe. Although the exact number is unknown, 35,400 unaccompanied minors sought asylum in Sweden last year – 12,000 higher than the total for all EU countries in 2014.
The majority received in Sweden come from Afghanistan while the 60,000 unaccompanied minors in Germany also include high numbers of Syrian and Iraqi nationals.
Not only are journey routes treacherous for young refugees travelling alone, they also face increased risks of trafficking and exploitation. Earlier this week the EU’s police intelligence unit, Europol, said over 10,000 migrant children may have gone missing in Europe over the past two years.
Last week UK ministers detailed limited plans to help unaccompanied child refugees in Europe, north Africa and the camps around Syria.
However, the published proposals did not come close to matching the calls made by the charity Save the Children for Britain to take in 3,000 of the child refugees travelling alone.