Swedish police are trying to explain the disappearance of dozens of foreignchildren. Orla Clinton reports from Stockholm on a disturbing situation with which social services seem unable to cope.
Last year 58 asylum-seeker children were reported missing in Sweden. According to police, 37 are still unaccounted for. Recently the Swedish media exposed the plight of youngsters at several reception centres in the country.
One such centre at Carlslund, north of Stockholm, hit the headlines earlier this month when it emerged that a teenager there had attempted suicide.
It was the eighth such suicide attempt at the institution in the last half year. Of particular concern for staff have been noticeable behavioural changes among some of the minors, ranging in age from 13 to 18 years.
"They disappear in the evenings, cars come and collect them. They [the children\] are often well dressed and have mobile phones a short time after arrival. This is unusual for children in their situation and a great cause of concern," said Marie Kessle, a child psychologist and director of the Child and Adult Psychiatric Refugee Centre. She has been working directly with the children.
She says unaccompanied minors are particularly vulnerable and insists this is in no way a new problem.
"They come here without family and are totally alone. They need support and protection from the society. But they live in group accommodation with little adult supervision. Many are suffering post-traumatic stress but staff are ill-trained and under-resourced to deal with the problem.
"Others have false identities and are accused by authorities of lying while being threatened by smugglers not to tell the truth," said Kessle, arguing if the social services had been doing their job this would not be happening.
Four centres in Sweden cater for the needs of unaccompanied minors. According to the Migration Board 200 to 300 children in this category arrive in the country each year.
The figure has been steadily increasing, with most coming from the Kurdish part of Iraq, Russia, eastern Europe, the Baltic States and Africa.
The children are normally accommodated in group housing provided by the Migration Board. Some children have relatives whom they can live with. Others have a trustee appointed to safeguard their interests.
But in reality, the system is in a shambles with the Migration Board and the Ministry of Development, Co-operation, Migration and Asylum Policy, unclear, unable and unwilling to take ultimate responsibility for these youngsters.
The Migration Board houses and feeds them while the relevant local authorities are supposed to look to their other needs.
Meanwhile children have little or no protection.
Many disappear of their own free will. Others are picked up or claimed by supposed relatives. In theory, the social services are supposed to follow up on cases.
But the reality is this can take months and in the meantime children can disappear, reported as missing.
Recently Save the Children, Sweden, suggested that a simple DNA test on alleged relatives would lessen the problem.
At the moment, anyone remotely associated with the child can contact them and take them out.
Kessle had already complained in January about the difficulties at Carlslund.
Normally the centre caters for 18 unaccompanied minors but now houses 60, many with special needs. Staff are stretched to the limit and unable to offer the protection the children require.
DET INSP Patrik Engström of the National Criminal Intelligence Service says: "These children are easy targets. They are identified in their home countries. They are trafficked to Sweden. Others arrive but are targeted once here.
" It is too early to speculate, but the mere possibility that this is going on warrants investigation. From the intelligence we have now it seems to suggest a valid reason that there is foul play."
The extremely closed environment in which traffickers operate, combined with the possibility of other networks such as a paedophile one, makes it very difficult to infiltrate and investigate. Human traffickers have used Sweden in the past as a transit point.
Children themselves are also involved in organising contacts outside of the centres. According to Kessle, minors are known to send money back to their own countries each month.
Nuri Kino, a freelance journalist who has written on the situation, is under no illusions. Acting undercover, he was able to go to Carlslund centre, approach youngsters outside and talk with them. They clearly told him they were in touch with people outside who "helped" them.
"Police don't understand the full extent of the problem. I have spoken with smugglers who confess to earning millions every year and who brag about control of the market," he says.
He describes the case of a 14-year-old Congolese girl who has vanished. "Her classmates say she would disappear for hours or days at a time. Strange men would pick her up and bring her back. Now she has just disappeared."
"This is about children and the responsibility to take care of them," says Kino. "But the police and the authorities don't fully understand it and are scared of it."
Orla Clinton is a freelance journalist based in Stockholm