Ten thousand missing children

4.2.2016

Question for written answer P-001104-16
to the Commission
Rule 130
Agnieszka Kozłowska-Rajewicz (PPE)

At the beginning of February 2016, the media revealed that, according to Europol, ten thousand migrant and refugee children have gone missing on EU soil over the last two years. They were registered after crossing the EU borders, but the asylum process was never completed because the children, most of whom had arrived in Europe without an accompanying adult, disappeared completely. The media are saying that these children may have been kidnapped by human traffickers and sexually exploited, forced to work in labour camps or forced to donate their organs. All of these possibilities are horrifying not only because of their character, but also because of the scale of the phenomenon.

1. Is there any information on the age, gender, nationality and ethnicity of these children and the time and place of their disappearance?2. Has the Commission identified the procedural or organisational mistakes that have made it possible for something like this to happen on such a huge scale?3. Are any steps being taken to explain why these children disappeared and to make sure it does not happen again, and if so, who is leading these efforts?