Friday 31 May 2013

Where have all the kids gone?

A look at unaccompanied asylum seeking children who have gone missing while state care in Ireland. How many have gone? Where have they gone? Why have they gone? Whats being done about it? 

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.