More than 50,000 unaccompanied minors have disappeared from asylum centers in Europe in the past three calendar years, according to a study by the international journalist collective “Lost in Europe.”

That collective indicates that it is about “vulnerable young people who are at risk of becoming victims of human trafficking and slavery”, reports the Belgian news agency Belga.

Data from European countries collected by the group Missing in Europe shows that from 2021 to 2023 there were 51,433 disappearances, while from 2018 to 2020 there were close to 18,000.

The actual number of missing persons is probably much higher, since only 13 of the 31 countries from which they were requested provided specific data.

Most minors disappeared in Italy (22,899) and Austria (20,077), followed by Belgium (2,241), Germany (2,005) and Switzerland (1,226). Data was not available from key countries such as Greece and Poland.

The Belgian authorities indicate that the data refer to reported disappearances, which is why it is possible that the same person appears more than once, as well as that they are mainly young people from Afghanistan, but also from Algeria, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Morocco.

European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ilva Johansson told the Lost in Europe collective that 40,000 unaccompanied minors entered Europe last year and that there is a “huge increase” in their movement between EU member states.

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