More than 10,000 migrant children may have disappeared after arriving in Europe over the past two years, the EU’s police intelligence unit says.
Advertisement
Prisons in Germany (where many migrants have headed) and Hungary (which they often pass through) are known countries with criminals caught exploiting refugees.
“We just do not know where they are, what they are doing or whom they are with”, he said Saturday.
Donald said there was evidence of a “criminal infrastructure” established over the last 18 months to exploit the migrant flow. And in the southern Swedish town of Trelleborg authorities said in October that about 1,000 unaccompanied refugee children and young adults who arrived there the previous month had disappeared.
The police agency has also documented a disturbing crossover between organised gangs helping to smuggle refugees into the European Union and human-trafficking gangs exploiting them for sex work and slavery.
However, it said it would not be taking in vulnerable children who had already made it into Europe. “They’re dealing with this on a daily basis, they’ve come to us because they see it as a big problem”, Donald said.
Amir Hashemi-Nik, a Stockholm County Administration member, confirmed the assertion, adding that “many” of the missing children in Sweden have been subjected to various kinds of human-trafficking, including prostitution and begging.
According to Donald, half the missing children disappeared in Italy, though he noted the estimate of 10,000 is likely an underestimate.
Escalating violent conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa sent more than 1 million people to seek asylum in Europe in 2015, with more than half of them coming from war-torn Syria.
Save the Children estimate that 26,000 children from Iraq and Syria have arrived in Europe over the past year.
“Whether they are registered or not, we’re talking about 270,000 children”, Donald, of Europol, said.
Save the Children Italy spokesman Michele Prosperi said that Europol, “sounded an alarm that is based on a real risk” because thousands of minors don’t stay within the system of migrant protection. “These kids are in the community, if they are being abused it’s in the community”. Left to fend for themselves, lone children are extremely vulnerable along the refugee route.
“So no matter what, we need to prevent the influx from massively increasing again in the spring”, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maziere said, as reported by German magazine Der Spiegel, adding, “time is running out”.
“It’s not unreasonable to say that we’re looking at 10,000-plus children”, he said.
Advertisement
The charity Save the Children has urged Britain to accept 3,000 children immediately.
