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.