Over 100 children in Ireland vanished from State care

Over 114 children went missing in the past five years, 106 were in State care

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Over 114 children went missing in the past five years, 106 were in State care

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John O’Mahoney, Garda assistant commissioner, said recently that 114 children who have been reported missing in the past five years are still missing. A staggering 106 of those 114 children were reported missing while in care of the State.

The Irish Independent reports that there is no way to compare these Irish figures to those overseas due to Irish “protocol” for record keeping. In addition to the 114 missing children, another 98 adults are still missing as well.

"The vast majority - and I can't give a specific figure - of those 114 children are either of African or Asian origin," said Mr O'Mahoney.

Speaking to the Oireachtas, O’Mahoney said that Interpol has been notified of all the missing children and that each case has been put on a “yellow notice database issued to police forces around the world.” Thus, O’Mahoney would be notified by other law enforcement agencies if any of the children are found.

According to detective chief superintendent John O'Driscoll of the Garda national immigration bureau, many cases of missing foreign national children had nothing to do with human trafficking.

In the past five years, there have been some 40,500 reports of missing people in Ireland. While that averages at around 8,000 reports a year, O’Mahoney believes that actual average of people missing per month is more around 4,000, taking into account multiple reports of the same person missing.
 

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