Debate: Setting up a comprehensive framework for missing children and missing persons at risk
Date: TUESDAY, 18 OCTOBER 2022
Speaker: Ylva Johansson
Language: EN

Each year, thousands of children are reported missing in the European Union, run away from home, are abducted by a parent or a stranger, or fall victim to violence, abuse and exploitation. Also, unaccompanied migrant children are trafficked, lost or injured or even worse. Next month, Missing Children Europe will turn 20. Twenty years of protection in action. Its European hotline for missing children, 116 000, operates in 32 countries. It is a free and 24/7 service. Any child, friend, family member or teacher can call for immediate help. The EU supports it with funding. We must all work together in the European Union – police and helplines, child protection services, judges, civil society organisations – our whole society. Today, Member States’ authorities are finding missing people using the Schengen Information System for law enforcement information exchange. Last year, the Schengen Information System contained more than 150 000 alerts on missing persons, and 7 500 Schengen information hits helped to find missing persons and bring them to safety. That’s much more than the year before. From next month on, the Schengen Information System will do an even better job, when its revised system will be fully operational. Better use of biometrics will make it easier to identify missing persons, and alerts will clarify whether the missing person needs protection, whether they are victims of trafficking, domestic or gender—based violence, or have run away from home. It will also be possible to enter alerts on children at risk of abduction. What will also improve the search for missing children is the update I have proposed to the Prüm framework for police information exchange, allowing the use of Prüm exchange to search for missing persons using biometric samples, DNA, fingerprints and facial images to check for hits in other Member States’ databases. We are looking forward to the negotiations between the co-legislators. We are also cooperating with law enforcement authorities in third countries to find missing persons. Close and fast cooperation is now possible with authorities from key partner countries, to follow the digital trail left by an abductor, thanks to the agreement of the second additional protocol to the Budapest Convention. The second additional protocol is now with you for endorsement, and I call on you to enable its swift ratification so the authorities can protect children from further harm. To help missing children and adults, we need to work across borders and across sectors. Anti-trafficking, child sexual abuse, or the protection of children in migration: effective law enforcement cooperation can only be as effective as the legislation it is built on. We put forward our proposal to prevent and combat child sexual abuse online. Detection of online child sexual abuse helped rescue victims in all EU Member States. The EU already has a solid framework to protect trafficked children, but in December, I will propose a revision of the Anti-Trafficking Directive which will further strengthen our fight against child trafficking. Vulnerable migrants and especially migrant children are at risk of going missing. More than 18 000 refugee children have disappeared from asylum seeker centres in Europe between 2018 and 2020. One of the reasons is slow family reunification procedures. Children waiting for years for family reunification often decide to stop waiting and take the dangerous route to their family. As part of the new pact on migration and asylum, we proposed to shorten and improve Dublin family reunification processes. Unaccompanied minors from Ukraine also need our specific attention and protection. Around 30 000 unaccompanied minors arrived from Ukraine to the EU. Unaccompanied and separate children need to be registered as soon as possible and referred to the child protection authorities to avoid disappearance or trafficking. Our EU child rights strategy says missing children are a child protection issue. Cooperation and coordination among authorities is key. It’s also a child rights issue. Every single child has the right to be helped. The right to be rescued. The right to be found. Every child must be traced as early as possible. Every missing child deserves an individual approach. The best interest of the child must be the primary consideration. We must protect and empower children to keep them from harm when they go missing and leave no stone unturned to find them. Let’s work together on this important mission.