Over 50,000 children disappeared from refugee
centres, 850 in NL
May 1, 2024
https://www.dutchnews.nl/2024/05/over-50000-children-disappeared-from-refugee-centres-850-in-nl/
Over 50,000
unaccompanied child refugees have gone missing from asylum seekers centres
across Europe over the last three years, 850 of whom disappeared while in the
care of the Dutch authorities, an investigation by journalism collective Lost
in Europe has shown.
In the
Netherlands, some 15,404 unaccompanied minors were registered in the last three
years. Of them, 850 disappeared without trace.
Last year
alone, at least 360 teenagers went missing from the Ter Apel refugee reception
centre. While some may have joined relatives elsewhere in Europe, others are
feared to have ended up in the hands of criminals or the sex trade.
Most of the
missing youngsters are between 12 and 18 but some are even younger, the
investigation showed.
The
European figure is double that of the three preceding years when some 18,292
youngsters went missing. “The real number is likely to be much higher,” Lost in
Europe journalist Geesje van Haren told broadcaster Nos.
Of the 31
European countries approached for figures, just 16 complied. Greece, Spain and
France did not provide any data. “Those are countries with huge migration
streams,” Van Haren said.
Plans for a
European central registration of minors using their fingerprints is a good
development, Van Haren said. “Although we have heard stories of teenagers who
were forced to file down their fingertips by criminal organisations,” she said.
Dutch human
trafficking rapporteur Conny Rijken said some of the children who vanished in
the Netherlands end up being exploited in the cannabis industry, nail bars and
in prostitution.
“We should
stop moving them around and give them a permanent place to live, where they can
be better protected,” she said.
Children’s
ombudsman Margrite Kalverboer said it was typical that no amber alert has ever
been issued for any of the missing children.
“They are
regarded as aliens (..). But these children have fled their country without
their parents and we are doing nothing to protect them. We don’t look for them.
We don’t help them find their parents. We are not offering them the physical
and educational safety they need,” she told the NRC.
According
to article 22 of the the UN convention on the Rights of the Child, that is what
the government should be providing, she said. “A child that is cared for is
less likely to disappear,” she said.
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