Almost 30 children in State care have disappeared this year, with whereabouts of 22 still unknown

Of the missing, 19 are young people who were separated from families while seeking international protection. Picture: File Pictrure/PA

Almost 30 teenagers have disappeared this year from State care, with one teenage boy, aged 14, missing for two months.

Repeated disappearances of children has sparked calls for better controls to ensure that they are safe and protected.

Of the 28 children who went missing from care placements, the whereabouts of 22 are still unknown — including one who has now aged out of the care system.

Of the missing, 19 are young people who were separated from families while seeking international protection.

A 17-year-old girl has been the subject of Garda missing person appeals six times this year — including twice in one week earlier this month.

She was also the subject of several missing person appeals last year.

A 13-year-old boy, meanwhile, has been reported missing to gardaí four times this year.

The mother of a teenage girl — who absconded from State care in January — is pleading with the Government to put better safeguards in place.

On one occasion, her daughter was found in a hotel with a much older man, and on another occasion, she was found with two adults in Donegal, hundreds of miles from the care home.

“There needs to be better safeguards in place for children in care,” she said.

There is a level of security and protection for those kids that isn’t being met and the State has a duty of care.

University College Dublin (UCD) Sexual Exploitation Research Programme research associate Ruth Breslin, said that children who go missing from State care are potentially being targeted for sexual exploitation in an organised manner by coordinated networks of predatory men.

A review is being undertaken by Tusla into sexual exploitation concerns in residential care following the publication of the Protecting Against Predators study last year by the researchers.

However, Ms Breslin said: “We are still having reports of children going missing, and that still remains a concern.

“What happens in the 12 or 24 hours that they are gone? Is there somebody with control over them?

“I want to see more questioning and investigating of what happens when these children go missing.”

Ms Breslin raised concerns that children and teens in State care are being exploited.

Exploitation fears

“We have young people and we don’t know where they are, we don’t where they sleep at night, we don’t know how they feed and clothe themselves.

“Have they ended up becoming reliant on people who are exploiting them?

“They are at the margins already but at the control of an exploiter, they are more on the margins and more hidden.”

A spokeswoman for Tusla said the agency is finalising an internal review of reporting and process management systems and that the agency is working with the Garda National Protection Services Bureau.

Tusla has liaised with the UCD research team to seek assurances that the referrals mentioned in the report were all referred to Tusla and An Garda Síochána.

“We have also undertaken a number of steps to strengthen the agency’s response to, and reporting of, child sexual exploitation and trafficking concerns, including the development and implementation of further staff training and a review of current child sexual exploitation concerns in residential care,” the Tusla spokesperson said.

“The agency maintains ongoing communication with An Garda Síochána, providing them with all pertinent information to hand concerning the missing young person to assist their efforts in locating the young person.”