Transcript March 2nd, 2016 The fate of missing unaccompanied children A

March 2nd, 2016
The fate of missing unaccompanied children
Launch of the SUMMIT report on the prevention, response and protection of unaccompanied
migrant children who go missing in Europe
A new report published today demonstrates that improved training on the
prevention and response to child disappearance is needed for those working
with the thousands of children who arrive in Europe alone.
More than 89,000 unaccompanied children arrived in the European Union in
20151, which represents a dramatic increase from to the 23,000 unaccompanied
children arriving in 2014.
According to Europol2, 10,000 of these children have disappeared within hours
of being registered and only a handful have been found since. However, national
reports seem to suggest that the number of missing unaccompanied children
could be much higher, and that many children go missing before being
registered by authorities.
Findings from an in-depth study on the issue were developed in the framework
of the project “Safeguarding Unaccompanied Migrant Minors from going
Missing by Identifying Best Practices and Training Actors on Interagency
Cooperation” (SUMMIT), co-funded by the European Union. The report refects
insight from the actors who deal primarily with the reception of unaccompanied
children and those who focus on the disappearance of children. It examines
practices in seven EU countries - the UK, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Cyprus, Ireland
and Greece.
It serves as a necessary mapping exercise of good practices, along with a
manual for grassroots professionals to be published in the next weeks, to
promote discussions and expert trainings between these actors across Member
States.
In the study, the authors call for improved cooperation between law
enforcement, social workers in shelters and reception centres, guardians,
hotlines for missing children and other parties to better prevent and respond to
the disappearance of unaccompanied children.
Authorities and frontline workers participating in the research reported
widespread frustration on how the disappearance of unaccompanied children is
handled in the countries studied. A lack of efcient procedures in managing
cases of missing unaccompanied children as well as the lack of clarity on the
responsibilities of each service involved was also reported as a main concern.
Even where practices are generally good, it is a lack of resources or motivation
of professionals involved that could delay or prevent an appropriate response to
the case.
1 Data was collected by UNHCR, from public websites and governmental sources.
2http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/30/fears-for-missing-child-refugees
Among the most common challenges encountered, professionals complained
about inconsistent data collection methods in the country and within Europe,
making exchange of relevant information difcult and inefective.
Many professionals admitted that it is often assumed that children leave
voluntarily and that a proper risk assessment is rarely conducted, leaving
children exposed to exploitation and trafcking.
“Children arriving in Europe to escape war, poverty and prosecution in their
country, face real risks of falling victim to trafcking, sexual exploitation, forced
marriage and economic exploitation, including forced donation of organs, forced
drug smuggling and begging. A worrying number of these children are never
found", said Delphine Moralis, Secretary General of Missing Children Europe,
the organisation coordinating the SUMMIT project.
“The key aim of our work is to reduce the number of children who go missing.
We have examined how diferent countries and agencies handle the issue. With
clear strategies, including standardised forms for recording and sharing details
of children and better defned roles across diferent agencies, we can make
progress.”
Dr. Karen Shalev Greene, director of the Centre for the Study of Missing
Persons at the University of Portsmouth and co-author, said: “Migrant children
arriving in Europe are entitled to the same level of protection as any other child.
However their disappearance is treated with less importance than the
disappearance a child who is an EU citizen. We need to change this
indiference.”
A training event to present these fndings and best practices will be held in April
to allow for the dissemination of this knowledge and resources at a grass roots
level. We need to step up eforts now before a generation of vulnerable children
are lost forever.
The report was written by Dr Karen Shalev Greene, Senior Lecturer with the
Institute of Criminal Justice Studies at the University of Portsmouth and
Director of the Centre for the Study of Missing Persons, and Federica Toscano,
Project Ofcer at Missing Children Europe. SUMMIT Project partners
contributed to the publication, in particular the organisations Child Circle,
NIDOS (NL), Defence for children-ECPAT (NL), TUSLA (IR) and KMOP (EL).