While men made up the majority of the migrant population last year, this year almost 60 percent of refugees coming to Europe are women and children trying to reunite with their husbands and fathers, according to social work experts.
Social workers Kathryn Hodges (left) and Adriana Sandu (right) spoke on behalf of refugee women.
Adriana Sandu, a volunteer at the Cambridge Refugee Resettlement Campaign (CRRC) in Europe, mentioned the statistic in a keynote at a conference aimed at discussing sustainable solutions for the trafficking and violence against women refugees.
The March 19 conference, sponsored by the Graduate School of Social Service’s (GSS) Institute for Women and Girls, was held at the Fordham Law School and drew over 50 attendees.
Sandu, a senior lecturer and research fellow at Anglia Ruskin University, has aided women and children who have fled conflict zones in Syria and Iraq.
“The increase of refugees has surpassed any expectations,” Sandu said, calling it the largest humanitarian crisis since World War II.
The GSS conference was set up as a parallel event for the 60th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, which promotes women’s rights and shapes gender equality.
Read the rest of the story at Inside Fordham.
