Unaccompanied Chinese girl goes missing from HSE care

A TEENAGE Chinese girl who arrived unaccompanied at Cork airport earlier this year has gone missing from HSE care.

The girl, who turned 17 earlier this month and arrived with no bags, is the latest case of an unaccompanied minor to disappear from state care. It is understood the girl arrived via Barcelona in January with just a mobile phone with one number on it. She was passed from the gardaí to the HSE who placed her in emergency foster care with a family in Carrigaline.

It is understood, however, she was taken from the family after 24 hours and placed in HSE supported lodging from which she subsequently went missing.

According to Fine Gael TD Simon Coveney, who has been investigating the girl’s plight, the foster family involved is unhappy with how the HSE and gardaí have been handling the case.

“A young Chinese girl arrived in Cork airport on January 22. She was put into emergency foster care and 24 hours later moved into seemingly unsupervised care,” he said.

It is understood the girl was walking down the street unaccompanied in Carrigaline during the day when she went missing.

“This girl was highly distressed when she was told she was leaving foster care. I understand the gardaí have made contact with the person whose number was on her mobile phone but he has denied all knowledge of her,” said Mr Coveney.

Latest figures show between 2000 and 2009 a total of 501 migrant children went missing from HSE care. Only 67 have been successfully traced.

Last November, a report by the Office of the Children’s Ombudsman on separated children highlighted the difference between how Irish and asylum-seeking children are treated.

“Someone said to me this girl has probably run off to meet her family. She arrived with nothing but a mobile phone with one number on it, she is probably in a dingy brothel somewhere but no one seems to care,” Mr Coveney said.

“Her foster family are extremely concerned for her welfare and it seems inexplicable as to why she would have been removed from their care.”

A Garda spokesman said inquires were being made into the girl’s whereabouts.

A HSE spokesperson said: “The HSE can confirm that bed and breakfast accommodation is not used in Cork to accommodate separated children seeking asylum or any indigenous/Irish child who is ‘out of home’.”