Last week we had (24th of May) International Missing Children's Day and the ISPCC put out a press release to highlight the needs of parents and families of missing children and in that regard to highlight the importance of their new hotline service for missing children. However what they do not mention in either their press release or on the news that day was that the Irish state have an extremely shameful track record in looking after the needs of unaccompanied asylum seeking children. There is shocking number of them that go missing and our never found. Last week we were reassured that the majority of children who go missing in Ireland are found within the first 72 hours and a unknown but large number of missing children were taken by one parent unknown to the other. However what they always forget to tell us is that they are only talking about children who happen to have an Irish Citizenship and not children who happen to have been born somewhere else in the world.
A lot of people would know by now the reality of the Direct Provision system where adult asylum seekers and families who came together are forced to live in substandard hostels, live on €19.10 a week and refused the right to work but little is ever mentioned of those kids that arrive in the state by themselves often fleeing awful situations in their home countries such as war, famine or persecution.
There is nothing new about children going missing from state care in Ireland. The Ryan Report makes a number of references to incidents in the past where teenagers and young children have gone missing and are still not found. Since to the Child Care Act 1991 unaccompanied minors are to be treated the same as Irish children and taken into HSE care and not put into direct provision until they are 18. In recent times there have been a number of more high profile cases in the media but little is done by way of showing the extent of the problem. The number of children that have sought asylum by themselves to the Office of Refugee Applications Commission between 1998 and 2008 is 5,300 (Crobett 2008).
Various independent reports exist on this issue but only one book has ever been published on unaccompanied minors and that's by Emma Quinn and Corona Joyce entitled Policies on Unaccompanied Minors in Ireland (2009). In this book the authors show that between 2000 and 2008 there was 463 incidents of missing separated children of which only 58 have been found.
This issue has only been brought up twice in the Oireachtas, once in the Seanad and once in the Dail. In June 2009 in reply to a question from Senator Maria Corrigan about "the number of children who have gone missing from the care of the Health Service Executive", Aine Brady TD (who was acting as both Minister for Health and Minister for Children because Mary Harney and Barry Andrews didn't bother showing up) said "The HSE have advised that in 2006, 181 children went missing from the care of the HSE and of these 180 were subsequently accounted for. The figure does not include separated children seeking asylum". She then went on to outline the same figures I as I provided above from Joyce and Quinn.
So why is it the case that in the same time frame almost all Irish children are accounted for and 58 foreign kids are still missing?
In Irish Refugee Council National Report for 2011 they give us some figures for missing asylum seeking children in 2009. They show that in 2009 a further 46 separated kids went missing of which just 9 have been found and between January and August 2010 7 children were reported missing from care.
In July 2012 the Irish Immigrant Support Centre issued a press release detailing a question in Dail Eireann from Ciara Conway TD to the Minister for Children Francis Fitzgerald in which the Minister said "(HSE) has advised me that thirteen separated children seeking asylum were reported missing from care in 2010. Eight of these young people returned to care, while five young adults who are aged 18 and 21 years are still missing....
During 2011 6 young people were reported missing, all of whom are still missing".
I have compiled a table showing the numbers together.
The total number of missing incidents from 2000 to 2011 is 528 and the total number found is 75 and still missing (as far as July 2012) is 453. Also note the percentage trends; in 2004 almost 40% of all unaccompanied asylum seeking children placed in care went missing of which just 21% were found.
Sometimes looking at figures and statistics it can be quite alienating and easy to forget that there is a child behind each number. I want to look at a number of particular cases of children who have gone missing while in HSE care.
In April 2007 Maeve Sheehan from The Independent reported that a 17 year old Nigerian girl who had been missing from HSE care was found by Gardai working in a brothel in Sligo. "A senior Garda source said that human trafficking gangs are increasingly organising the trafficking of unaccompanied minors - teenagers aged under 18 - in to Ireland who are taken into care of the HSE on arrival in Ireland, from which they can easily escape".
In September 2008 Dara De Faoite and Ruadhan Mac Cormaic from the Irish Times reported that a different 17 year old Nigerian girl failed to show up to court after she was arrested following a raid on a brothel in Kilkenny. It was subsequently revealed that she had gone missing from HSE care yet again. A spokesperson for Ruhama, an organisation that works with women in prostitution, commented “The Trafficking of women and girls into the sex industry is a serious problem in Ireland, and while we welcome the recent legislation which makes human trafficking a criminal offence [2008 Immigration Residence and Protection Bill], we still need to ensure that adequate protection for the victims of this hideous crime is enshrined in law and fully resourced”.
In February 2010 the Children’s Rights Alliance released a response to a HSE spokesperson’s statement to the Irish Times where the HSE stated that “it has been unsubstantiated that any of the children that have gone missing from HSE care have been trafficked”. The Alliance claim they have collated a list of 25 instances of confirmed child trafficking for the purpose of sexual or labour exploitation. They claim that the HSE was providing a highly inadequate quality of care for these children and has breached its own statutory duty. By the end of 2010 a total of 69 children had been found, of these 69 (although their report was only issued in February so it is actually much less than 69) the Children's Rights Alliance could find 25 cases where children were purposely trafficked here for the sex trade.
The case of asylum seeking children going missing from care and found working in the sex industry has even caught the attention of international whistle-blowing organisation Wikileaks . The cables in question came from a meeting between HSE officials and US Diplomats in the American Embassy in Dublin. These are fears confirmed by research by Finn and Curley (2007) “The report finds that there are a small number of missing Children who were trafficked to Ireland for sexual exploitation. These children are normally girls and often have suffered abuse, rape, brutality and imprisonment prior to arriving in Ireland. It is likely that when these children go missing they have been trafficked on into further exploitation. In some cases the children are contacted in their accommodation by traffickers or pimps before going missing.”
This is not the only reason for children to go missing however. Most children go missing in their late teens and often close to their eighteenth birthday and it is assumed that they are running away to prevent either their deportation or ending up in direct provision. Others are taken by family who have already attained citizenship or migrant status. This will cause a huge problem for these people as they are now in a legal limbo with no status whatsoever. They will not be able to attend any further education, get social welfare or get any job legally.
The Gardai have set up a website called Missing Kids for the public to see who these children are. Some basic information is given and each child is given a Case Type. Below is a picture of Jennifer Anne Bena Princess. Jennifer is just one child out of literally hundreds. She went missing at the age of 5 in 2004 and would now be aged 14. Her Case Type is labeled as "Concern for Welfare" and she is believed to be in the UK somewhere. It is worth keeping in mind that behind each figure there is a face like this one.
I'm sure you are wondering how was all of this allowed to happen? Why are children leaving our care centres and later found working in brothels?
There are a number of state policies in place to stop such things from happening and indeed a number of articles in the constitution to protect children against this kind of treatment. There are also a number of international obligations which the Irish state have signed up to which should protect the most vulnerable in society. But effectively none of this has mattered.
In 1992 the Irish state ratified the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Ireland is currently in breach of a number of articles in this Convention. This document is supposed to be legally binding but yet there is no action being taken against the Irish state.
Article 3.1 of the UNCRC claims that “In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration”. This best interest principle should run through all Irish social policy since the ratification of the UNCRC however the use of the term ‘best interest’ is open to interpretation as the best interests of a child may be debatable. This has caused problems in implementation.Other articles which the Irish government are in breach of are Article 9 (Separation from Parents), 10 (Family Reunification), 20 (Protection of Children without Families) and 22 (Refugee Children).
Article 9.3 claims that the state must respect the right of the child who is separated from both or one parent to maintain contact and personal relations on a regular basis. This is of course as long as a child having contact with their parents is always in their best interest. Article 20 discusses how the state has an obligation to provide assistance and special protection for children with no families and to ensure that institutional placement is made available to them, taking into account the child’s cultural background. Article 22 requires that asylum seeking children should receive appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance. None of these articles are adhered to, in fact the UNCRC is thrown out the window when it comes to foreign kids.
Article 9.3 claims that the state must respect the right of the child who is separated from both or one parent to maintain contact and personal relations on a regular basis. This is of course as long as a child having contact with their parents is always in their best interest. Article 20 discusses how the state has an obligation to provide assistance and special protection for children with no families and to ensure that institutional placement is made available to them, taking into account the child’s cultural background. Article 22 requires that asylum seeking children should receive appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance. None of these articles are adhered to, in fact the UNCRC is thrown out the window when it comes to foreign kids.
Article 9.3 claims that the state must respect the right of the child who is separated from both or one parent to maintain contact and personal relations on a regular basis. This is of course as long as a child having contact with their parents is always in their best interest. Article 20 discusses how the state has an obligation to provide assistance and special protection for children with no families and to ensure that institutional placement is made available to them, taking into account the child’s cultural background. Article 22 requires that asylum seeking children should receive appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance. None of these articles are adhered to, in fact the UNCRC is thrown out the window when it comes to foreign kids.
Shamseldin (2012) carried out an extensive comparative examination into how the UNCRC is being implemented in Ireland, England and Sweden in relation to unaccompanied asylum seeking children. One of her many findings was that the best interest principle was well known by child care professionals in Ireland but she felt that blame was placed heavily on those working in immigration administration for not holding the best interest of the child in priority. She then goes on to suggest that some children are viewed by states as more equal than others and outlines why she believes there is a contradiction between the UNCRC and individual states approach to child welfare “There is a contradiction between the UNCRC 1989 providing special protection and assistance measures to UASC [unaccompanied asylum seeking children] and the division of provision of child welfare and protection in England, Ireland and Sweden.”
She concludes her report by saying “Implementation of the UNCRC 1989 in the care and protection of UASC in the states of England, Ireland and Sweden is characterized by ad hocism and indeterminacy”. Her report exposes the unprofessional nature of childcare for non-Irish children in this country.
If you look back up at the table of figures you will notice that the number of children going missing has dropped in the last few years and the number being found has increased. In 2002 3.7% of children that went missing were found but in 2010 61.5% were found.
So what has changed?
One would like to think that the state recognized the problem, had an analysis of what went wrong and then had an appropriate child centered policy put in place and monitored its implementation. Well the reality is actually quite different. Firstly the reason why things are changing is by pure coincidence. The Ryan Report Implementation Plan has brought about the end of the use of sub standard hostels as care accommodation. Children are now placed in appropriate accommodation where there is much more chance of care workers noticing strange behavior, strange visitors and are in better positions to act quickly in the event of a missing child.
After a number of media reports on this issue the HSE had to respond in terms of policy. They did not devise any new detailed policy document, rather they put in place what they call their Equity of Care Policy. All this means is that all children should receive the same level of care regardless of of where they are from.
Why was this not considered best practice anyway? Why do the HSE have to tell their organisation to treat non-Irish kids with the same respect as Irish kids? The fact of the matter is the HSE should not have had to implement this new policy 1) because the Child Care Act 1991 already says this and 2) all children should be treated equally regardless of any act or policy.
Lastly the real reason why the number of children being found has increased is not, as you might think, anything to do with the Department of Health, the HSE, the Department of Children or the Department of Social Protection. Instead the only policy response to this problem comes from the Department of Justice of Equality and Law Reform and it is definitely not child centered. The states focus is a reactionary one, its focus is on "illegal immigration" wrapped up in insincere concern for children.
A document entitled National Action Plan to Prevent and Combat Trafficking of Human Beings in Ireland 2009-2012 was published and a Joint Protocol on Missing Children was established between the HSE and the Gardai in April 2011. The document outlines in detail how, in the event of a child gone missing, the police will begin a hunt for them. We can safely assume that when they find a missing 17 year old nearing their eighteenth birthday the police make sure that their papers for direct provision are filled out and filed.
So what can we take from all this?
Firstly that for 7 or 8 years an alarming number of children were going missing and absolutely nothing was being done about it. The state knew this was happening as it is in HSE reports and it didn't even prompt any questions in the Dail and received barely any media attention. If a fraction of those children were Irish there would be a national outcry. When they began to recognize the problem they did not launch a child centered task force to find out why so many children want to run away, or how Ireland has become a soft target for human traffickers on the sex trade, or why children do not want to end up in direct provision. Instead they have a law and order response as they see this as a crime issue and not a care one. It is viewed as a problem in the sense that it is problematic for the police and state not in the sense that hundreds of children vanishing from care is a problem in itself. This is a problem because its harmful to the children in question not because it posses difficulties for the authorities. But sadly this is not how the whole thing is being viewed.
As I said at the start in 2006 181 Irish children went missing and 180 returned within 72 hours, in the same year 53 asylum seeking children went missing and just 6 returned. It doesn't take a genius to see whats going on here. The state doesn't care about foreign kids, the state is racist. Time to end double standards in care, time to stop treating non-Irish people in Ireland like criminals and time to end direct provision.
KG
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