Call for child asylum seeker controls

GARDAÍ have requested health boards to increase controls in hostels for child asylum seekers who arrive here without their parents.

The call follows the disappearance of increasing numbers of unaccompanied minors from health board hostels, which gardaí say are virtual "open houses".

Gardaí complain that many of these hostels keep very little records of minors, including photographs, which would greatly help gardaí when any of them are reported missing.

Detectives in Dublin's north inner city will, in the coming days, reissue an appeal in connection with a missing 15-year-old from Moldova, in eastern Europe. The girl, named as Madalina Rosu, disappeared from her health board hostel on North Circular Road on April 6.

"Unfortunately, she wouldn't be the first to go missing. We have this ongoing difficulty when they arrive in this country they are put up by the relevant health authority into one of these homes, typically on the North Circular Road," said one garda.

"The hostels are very much an open house. Should they desire to go walkabout, they can.

"The next thing they are landed on our files as a missing person." Gardaí have made representations to the health authorities to introduce more control systems and security in these hostels.

"That's something that's actually gathering a bit of momentum. We hope to improve on that, at least have photographs, basic records," said the garda source.

The Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) has also raised the need for greater hostel record-keeping and security with the health authorities.

Detectives are concerned about the safety of Ms Rosu, as there have been no sightings of her for five weeks.

Gardaí said minors often disappear when a deportation order is made against them.

However, it is understood that this was not the case with Ms Rosu.

This is raising concerns that she may have been sold into an arranged marriage, which is not uncommon in the Roma community.

A spokesman for the East Coast Area Health Board which is responsible for all unaccompanied minors in Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare said they were not aware of garda security concerns.

However, he said they had made a number of improvements in these hostels in the last two years, making them smaller and same-sex.

He said they were in constant contact with the GNIB.

He said there was 364 minors mainly in their teens in their care, cared for by 15 social workers and nine project leaders.