Identifying ‘pull’ factors vital in missing children cases

GARDAÍ and social workers should identify “pull” factors in communities which expose or exploit children to sex, drugs or crime, according to strict new guidelines on dealing with missing children.

The new agreement between the force and health chiefs also suggests that when missing children are returned to care after being a victim of crime or exposed to a danger, trace evidence from their fingernails, hair, body, clothes or mobile phone should be crucial for investigating gardaí.

In the guidelines, the HSE notes that children who are “repeatedly absent” are “often enticed away from their placements by activities that they see as exciting or by predatory influences”.