Single phone code for EU’s missing children

EACH year thousands of children go missing throughout Europe, many never to be seen again.

The EU, however, is now hoping to set up a single telephone code that both children and parents can ring to look for help.

The announcement was made to coincide with International Missing Children’s Day today, when the public are being asked to wear a Forget-me-not flower and become more aware of the problem.

Experience shows that gathering information in the first hours after the disappearance is crucial in helping to find a missing child.

Given that such a big number of child kidnappings relate to the crossing of international borders, it’s also essential that there should be just one EU-wide telephone number that people can ring.

EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini said: “Children, parents and witnesses should be able to dial one short and easy-to-remember code in emergency cases, as soon as a child goes missing or has been spotted.”

The EU, along with the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations, is currently looking into the possibility of using a dedicated number — 116 — for missing and sexually exploited children.

Dealing with the problem of missing children is difficult because they disappear for such a wide range of reasons, the commissioner said. Some can be abducted by disputing parents and may not be in any real danger, while some older children may run away. However, many, especially in Eastern Europe, are stolen by gangs involved in the child trade for purposes of paedophilia, possible organ trafficking and to supply the illegal adoption market as well as for prostitution, according to the Council of Europe.

A major study carried out recently by Childoscope with EU funds found it impossible to even quantify the number of children missing and sexually exploited across Europe.

“Statistics are generally not available in the EU. Data gathering is seldom organised at a national level and the available data is largely difficult to access with little or no details to be obtained,” the report said.

In Britain, police estimate that the total number of children that go missing each year is 70,000 and they recorded 846 cases of child abductions in 2003.

Police in Belgium say they had over 1,000 missing children reported to them last year. Belgium has for years had a major problem in the area linked to paedophile cases such as Marc Detrout.

In Italy, police records show that 1,850 youngsters went missing last year.

The Childoscope authors concede the figures cannot be officially ratified.

The National Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), with gardaí, 18 months ago launched a missing children website www.missingkids.ie