As south Asia comes to terms with the tsunami's destructive and deadly toll, it is becoming clear orphaned children are among the most helpless victims.

According to the United Nations children's agency, UNICEF, as many as one-third of the disaster's estimated 150,000 victims were under the age of 16. And of the survivors, the agency estimates as many as 50,000 children are suddenly without parents.

"We probably underestimated the impact on children," UNICEF spokesperson Wivina Belmonte told Reuters.

Unfortunately for young people in the region, being without parents means not only finding food and shelter, but also struggling to survive among a wide variety of unique challenges.

Already, there are widespread reports of sexual abuse, pedophilia, and even grieving parents snatching children from hospitals to replace the ones they've lost.

On Indonesia's Sumatra island, for example, where as many as 35,000 children have been orphaned or separated from their parents, there are reports of a burgeoning underground business in child trafficking. Authorities have already moved to curb the problem by imposing restrictions on children leaving the country.

And in India, aid agencies have raised concerns over relatives dividing orphaned siblings in the hopes of maximizing the money they have been promised as tsunami survivors.

In Sri Lanka, children face the added peril of landmines -- leftovers of the country's years of civil war -- suddenly thrust to the surface by the huge tidal waves. There are also concerns the rebel Tamil Tigers may be abducting displaced children to train as guerilla fighters.

'Tsunami generation'

Reporting from Sri Lanka's hard-hit Galle region, CTV reporter Lisa LaFlamme said as many as 5,000 children in that area alone are believed to have been orphaned as a result of the tsunami.

"Although they say they won't really know until Jan. 10th, when school starts, whether that number is accurate," LaFlamme said.

Bearing the dire plight of those and the thousands other children suddenly without parents in mind, LaFlamme says the Sri Lankan government has signalled its willingness to consider sending them abroad.

"It is reluctant to allow the tsunami to open the floodgates to foreign adoption," she said. "But if they have to, they say that they may consider -- with tight conditions -- adopting out."

Among the conditions, she said, could be that the children go to people of Sri Lankan origin now living overseas.

UNICEF, which does not help with inter-country adoption, considers wrenching a child from her home country an option of last resort.

Instead, UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy says it would be better to focus on four main priorities:

• keeping children alive with clean water, adequate nutrition and routine medical care,
• identifying and reuniting separated children with their extended families,
• protecting children from criminal exploitation,
• and addressing psychological trauma through a quick return to school, and counselling where possible.

These basic measures, Bellamy said upon arriving in Indonesia following her two-day tour of Sri Lanka, "must be implemented to give this devastated tsunami generation a fighting chance."

Canada mulls rule change

In Ottawa on Monday, Immigration Minister Judy Sgro acknowledged the plight of the tens of thousands of orphans believed to now be scattered across the region.

"There are a lot of orphaned children that have extended family here in Canada," Sgro said in an interview after meeting with Prime Minister Paul Martin and other cabinet members.

"We'll be very cautiously talking with the leaders of the community and discussing how we can match up extended family here with orphaned children over there, without question. We want to be as sympathetic as we can and as helpful as we can."

Under current immigration rules, only Canadian citizens, not landed immigrants, can sponsor close family members as candidates to move to Canada.

Since the magnitude-9.0 quake sent deadly tsunami crashing over a dozen south Asian countries, killing as many as 150,000 and leaving another 500,000 homeless, Canada has made a number of other changes to its immigration rules.

Canadians with close relatives in tsunami-stricken regions, for example, can apply to have their family class immigration applications fast-tracked.

The department is also waiving new application processing fees and the Right of Permanent Resident fee for those who have been "seriously and personally affected by the disaster."

With files from CTV News and The Canadian Press