FINE GAEL has expressed concern that some immigrant children may have been trafficked into the sex industry after the release of figures showing hundreds of children have gone missing from State care in recent years.
The party’s immigration spokesman Denis Naughten said figures from the Department of Justice showed 441 children went missing between 2000 and 2007.
“Of these, 388 remain unaccounted for to this day – 88 per cent of the total,” Mr Naughten said. Last year, 31 children – a quarter of all those who were placed in State care after they arrived unaccompanied from outside the EU – disappeared.
“They include five young Nigerian girls who vanished in June 2007, the youngest of whom was just 11 years old. While the majority of children placed in care by the Immigration Service are in the 16- to 17-year age range, there have been cases of much younger children, some as young as 11, going missing from care.
“It is widely understood that some of these separated children are trafficked into the sex industry.” He said the issue had been “shamefully overlooked in the new Immigration Bill, which does not provide adequate protection for separated children”.
Describing Ireland as one of the easiest trafficking routes into Britain, he said: “Since 2004, 330 children are known to have been trafficked into the UK through various routes, which experts believe is only the tip of the iceberg.”