These figures seem scarcely credible. And yet, they are relentless: according to the European Federation for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children, half of migrant children who set a foot on European soil disappear in the wild within 48 hours. Left to themselves.
In 2013, for example, 24,000 miners arrived on European soil, about 12,000 have applied for asylum but 12,000 others have not introduced any request. The latter therefore do not leave a trace in the administrative documents. This, we imagine, makes them terribly vulnerable.
An alarming finding, which is mainly due to a problem of law, explains the spokesman of Missing Children.
"The application of the Dublin Regulations (currently in force in Europe) does not solve the problems. It provides that persons arriving in a country of the European Union and which have previously been welcomed into another country will be returned to the first host country, "said Maud de Boer.
"This means that children have every incentive not to register in the reception centers, because if their project, albeit illusory, is to visit a country in northern Europe, where the authorities will be faced with these children and find that they have previously been hosted in another country of the European Union, they may send them back there, "says the spokesman for the European Federation for missing children.
"We must stop with this regulation. What we need to do is consider the best interests of the child. And this is not to get them back to where they came from."
The story was reported inrtbf.be/info/dossier/