Twenty-three children have gone missing from HSE-run hostels since the start of the year and 20 remain missing, the Health Service Executive has confirmed.
The children arrived in Ireland as “unaccompanied minors” and were housed in hostels as applications for asylum were processed. The figures, accurate to the end of May, compare with 22 who went missing in the whole of last year, five of whom were eventually accounted for.
The highest number of children to go missing from State care in one year was 65, in 2005, 14 of whom were eventually accounted for.
Concern has been expressed that a significant proportion of these children are trafficked into the State for forced labour or sexual exploitation and once accommodated in a State hostel, are effectively “kidnapped” and forced into work.