At least 79 people have died after their fishing boat capsized off the coast of Greece.

More than 100 were rescued but officials fear hundreds more migrants may have been on board.

Teleri Jardine who is a specialist in Child Protection and Refugees at World Vision gave her reaction to Premier: “It’s just heartbreaking to see the extreme lengths that children and families who are displaced have to go to to find safety and our thoughts and our prayers are very much with them and with the children around the world who are displaced and just seeking to find safety.

“We’re seeing the world's highest number ever of forcibly displaced people. There are currently around 117 million people that are displaced around the world, and very sadly 40 per cent of them are children. It’s due to conflict and to climate change particularly.”

World Vision has just released a report on conditions for refugee families and children around the world. It found that hunger and violence levels continue to increase while funding fails to keep pace with the scale of the refugee crisis. It says the number of families who are borrowing from others in order to afford basic necessities has doubled from 2022, and 82 per cent of families are reducing the quality and quantity of their meals to cope with lower incomes. Eighty-five per cent of forcibly displaced families cannot afford enough food to meet their daily nutrition needs. 

Amanda Rives, World Vision’s Senior Director of Disaster Management, said: “The needs of children in places like Syria, Niger, DRC and Afghanistan are now greater than they have been in years, but there is not enough funding in place to respond and these children are being forgotten. Today millions of children are struggling to exist in refugee camps. Too many are being forced to marry in order to survive. Too many are being forced to work in order to survive. They are hungry. They don’t get to go to school. They don’t get to have a childhood. And the world is forgetting about them.”