At least 289 children are known to have died at sea in the first six months of this year while attempting to reach Europe, according to the United Nations children agency (UNICEF).

The figure is nearly double the number recorded in the first half of 2022, the UNICEF said on Friday, adding that the children made the perilous journeys across the Mediterranean Sea driven by conflict and climate change.

Verena Knaus, the UNICEF’s global lead on migration and displacement, said the true figures were likely to be higher as many shipwrecks on the Central Mediterranean leave no survivors or go unrecorded.