Tusla expects to care for 1,200 unaccompanied child asylum seekers this year, Dáil committee told

A total of 69 unaccompanied children have gone missing to date this year. Of these, 48 have been accounted for, two have turned 18, and 19 remain missing.

More than 1,200 separated child asylum seekers are expected to be cared for Tusla by the end of the year — a 33% increase on last year.

The Child and Family Agency said half of the unaccompanied minors were from Ukraine, up from a third, due to an “increase during the summer”.

Interim service director Lorna Kavanagh said there were 900 cases in 2024. She said Somalia and Afghanistan were the next most common origin states, after Ukraine, with a “slight increase” in cases from Vietnam, which, she said, was unusual.

Appearing before the Oireachtas Justice Committee, Ms Kavanagh said, of the 570 asylum children currently in the system, 316 were aged 17, 127 were aged 16, 36 aged 15 and the remainder aged seven-14.

Members of the committee, which is conducting pre-legislative scrutiny of the International Protection Bill 2025, asked about the reasons behind the increase this year.

Ms Kavanagh said Russia’s war in Ukraine is a main reason, along with the situation in Afghanistan, following the return of the Taliban regime, while the situation in Somalia is “dire”.

She added there were secondary factors, such as legislation in other countries, citing changes in Sweden recently, which has led to an increase in unaccompanied children from Somalia coming to Ireland.

Asked how these children are getting to this country, Ms Kavanagh said a 16-year-old could travel on a plane on their own. She said in other cases they might be put on a flight by an agent, while others might have “paperwork to get on a plane, but don’t have on arrival”.

Ms Kavanagh said some days Tusla could have 15 unaccompanied children, creating “considerable pressure” to accommodate them.

Fianna Fáil senator Anne Rabbitte said there was a recent situation in University of Galway Hospital where a child was kept for weeks awaiting an assessment by Tusla. 

Ms Kavanagh said the team was based in Dublin and the delay was due to the “sheer volume of cases”.

In response to questions from committee chair Matt Carthy of Sinn Féin, she said a total of 69 unaccompanied children have gone missing to date this year. Of these, 48 have been accounted for, two have turned 18, and 19 remain missing.

Ms Kavanagh said missing cases were “increasing year on year” and part of that trend was that a lot of young people were arriving into Ireland with an intention to go to another country.

She said most of the missing 19 cases are aged 16-17, but they have had cases of 12 to 14 year olds going missing.

Mr Carthy suggested there must be a “guiding hand” behind these children. Ms Kavanagh said those younger children arrived in the country on a ferry with adults, but not their parents, and were taken into care. She said it was possible they left for another country with those adults.

She said Tusla was concerned some of the children were “victims of trafficking”. She said they suspected, as most unaccompanied minors are boys, the trafficking was for labour exploitation.

Gerry Hone, Tusla interim director of services and integration, said they were not seeing any evidence of sexual exploitation.

Ms Kavanagh said that once a children goes missing it is “very difficult” to find them and said they immediately report to gardaí.

In relation to the General Scheme of the International Protection Bill, all of the groups appearing before the committee expressed serious concern at the absence of key provisions, affecting fundamental human rights, in the draft bill.

The committee heard from the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, the Children’s Ombudsman, as well as Tusla.

Significant concern was expressed at the new concept of “legal counselling”, as opposed to legal advice, given by a qualified solicitor or barrister.

There were also concerns at provisions in the bill allowing for the possible detention of children, which is not in current laws.

Tracey O'Keeffe of the Department of Justice said the provisions complied with EU law and said the "operational reality" was that detention would not happen, and, if it did, it would only be in the "rarest of cases".