Over 18,000 child migrants disappeared in Europe since 2018

As many as 18,292 unaccompanied child migrants have disappeared from European countries since 2018 according to an investigation conducted jointly by The Guardian and the cross-border journalistic project, Lost in Europe. The journalists discovered that in 2020 alone, 5,768 migrant children vanished in 13 European countries.

Most missing children who have disappeared within the past three years came from Morocco although Algeria, Eritrea, Guinea, and Afghanistan are also among the top countries of origin. The investigation revealed that 90% of the missing child migrants were boys and one in six were under the age of 15.

The journalists researched the situation in all 27 EU countries as well as in Norway, Moldova, Switzerland, and the UK. However, the data provided by certain countries was incomplete which may mean that the real number of missing migrant children could be much higher.

The Guardian together with Lost in Europe discovered that in March 2019 around 60 Vietnamese children vanished from Dutch shelters with local authorities suggesting they might have been trafficked into the UK to be forced to work on cannabis farms or in manicure salons.

Federica Toscano, the head of Advocacy and Migration at Missing Children Europe (European Federation for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children) said that:

“Criminal organizations are increasingly targeting migrant children, especially unaccompanied ones and many of them become victims of labor and sexual exploitation, forced into begging and trafficking.”

Referring to the efficiency of the child protection system in Europe, Toscana said that this alarmingly high number of missing migrant children was “a symptom of a child-protection system that doesn’t work and that “cross-border collaboration on these cases is practically nonexistent.”

This stance is backed by a report from the European Migration Network according to which although all European countries have procedures relating to the disappearance of unaccompanied children, they fail to follow up what has happened to previously reported child migrants and there is a lack of proper cooperation between the police and asylum or child protection institutions.