Almost fifth of lone Albanian child refugees in Kent missing

[habibihabibi]

I read this headline today but don't understand how one let, alone 39 children slip through the net. Does anyone know how and what likely happens to them?
Presumably they come to the UK , are processed and placed in care so they can attend school .
Why isn't there press and police reporting about these missing kids ?

I remember my dentist saying you can determine age within three months from dental examination. Even though the BDA is against dental tests, I would trust dental checks and hand xrays more than a social worker having a guess.

When I say the press not reporting , I mean on a individual case by case missing person....like when a kid goes missing normally and is not found .

There's many organised Albanian crime gangs in the UK. Picked up and trafficked to work for the gangs weed farms , dealing for the girls forced into prostitution. It's fucking grim.

Because by and large the story wouldn't have public sympathy or public outrage. Which means it wouldn't sell papers. Many people don't care about immigrants of any type. Lots are racist still.

I saw a film about it once. People trafficking brought children into the country as illegal immigrants who were then often captured by authorities. Before the journey the children were told lies about what would happen to them in the official systems, told to run away at the first opportunity and call a phone number given to them before being trafficked. Someone picked the child up from the payphone and sold them as a housework slave, in the case of the child in the film.

Most unaccompanied children in the system are 16/17/18 and male. The sad fact is that young children on their own, and young women, are much less likely to survive the journey and the dangers that being homeless and vulnerable bring.

Some go into foster homes but a lot go into youth homeless services which are a bit of a mixed bag in terms of provision. These sort of youth services are predominantly designed around Uk youth - eg gaining independence, learning adult skills etc - and aren’t always easy for someone who has been independent for 2/3 years in very challenging circumstances to fit into.

Not just Albanian. I read this back in October. Over 200 missing children at that point.

amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/24/the-guardian-view-on-222-lost-children-shame-on-the-home-office

I've also taught Syrian 'boys' that were suspiciously mature but this surely can't account for all the children who are missing?

Children seeking asylum going missing is sadly not limited to Albanians (that would be sad enough), or the U.K. It's widespread and shockingly, fairly normal.

news.cgtn.com/news/2021-04-19/18-000-child-refugees-have-disappeared-in-Europe-in-last-three-years-ZApRE8NyIo/index.html

There were Ukrainian children sent out of Ukraine alone when the war started. The parents wanted their children to be safe, so sent them to safety. Totally understandable and I'm sure lots of them made it to a proper place of safety. But it's not a conspiracy theory to say that there are people who have use for unaccompanied, vulnerable children, so know when and how to get them. There were cases of people driving over to Poland to pick up refugees and bring them home to safety. It was undoubtedly people with a big heart who just wanted to help. Fine. But the fact that it was so easy to just pick people up, with no records being made anywhere, meant it was a certainty that people with less then good-hearted intentions did the same. And we can't prove it disprove it, because there's no record. There's only a record if some good-hearted people doing it.

It's absolutely awful and disgusting that authorities everywhere don't have safeguarding of unaccompanied children as an absolute priority. Unlike if my child went missing, these kids have nobody to be following up in their behalf. They're truly alone and sitting ducks, ripe for the picking by the most awful in our societies. And it's not a secret.

You can estimate age by xraying their wrist to see the bone growth. But probably this can't be forced on someone due to human rights.

Albanian refugees? Refugees from what exactly?

People need to understand that we live in a lawless society where the authorities are incapable of ensuring people’s safety, prevent drug trafficking or deal with immigration. It has been like this since the 90’s, our country has a huge network of criminal gangs and even in small towns, kids can be seen running drugs. The problem is all parties ignore it and see it as a minor issue. It is not.

People think that it’s cruel to govern and restrict immigration, legal or otherwise, but the current system seems to protect the criminals and ignore the victims.

This ^

We need some radical changes in the law but while we are still signed up to the UNCHR that won't be possible.

@Usou "Albanian refugees? Refugees from what exactly?"

I was pondering that question.

I didn't know there was a war in Albania.

Well, you learn a new thing every day, it seems.

So young people under 18 or around the age of 18 are going missing, quite possibly into the hands of criminals, and people care enough to argue their age? This is appalling. What has happened to humanity? Why does one life matter so little? I don't care if they are 17.5 or 18.5 or 27 or 7. No one should matter so little, in any country, that they go missing, and it is not followed up properly.

@timetogetlost So young people under 18 or around the age of 18 are going missing, quite possibly into the hands of criminals, and people care enough to argue their age? This is appalling. What has happened to humanity? Why does one life matter so little? I don't care if they are 17.5 or 18.5 or 27 or 7. No one should matter so little, in any country, that they go missing, and it is not followed up properly

I think you're singing to the choir here.

You're also trying to simplify a massive problem of underground smuggling gangs.

I don't know what the answer is so you could ask your MP www.writetothem.com/

I guess they don't really have any info on them? Or maybe they know where they go or they turn 18.

I would be very surprised if a biological test of age were possible. We're not like trees which lay down rings each year, for example. People grow and mature at such different rates and I do not think that there is a reliable marker left behind in our bodies. The DNA tailing mentioned upthread is not reliable although scientists are searching for other genetic and epigenetic approaches. (@BewareTheLibrarians I assume DNA tail measurement refers to the relationship between DNA telomeres and chronological age, there is indeed a relationship but not precise enough to determine chronological age exactly yet.)

Maybe in the future we'll all be chipped at birth, with a backstreet trade in hacking out old chips and implanting new ones with fake data.

The teenagers who migrate here will likely already know, perhaps extended family members already in the UK. Once over the border they abscond to them.

Of course any of them under about 21 will try their luck to say they are under 18. Why wouldn't they? That's how to play the system.

I used to be very against ID cards but I'd be for them now.

Is “teenagers who migrate” a normal phrase now? Do teenagers (including 16/17/18 yr olds) usually pay thousands for a potentially deadly boat crossing just so they can get some benefits in a foreign country?

Or is it much more likely that teenage boys and girls are being trafficked for labour exploitation and forced prostitution? There is evidence that shows that’s exactly what’s happening (close to 90% of female Albanian asylum seekers claims being accepted as it’s clear they are being trafficked for eg, reports into modern slavery in the UK that support this.)

Effectively the only time this missing kids (or kid adults) have been recorded in when they enter the system seeking asylum. Absconding or abduction means they will be underground forever more. How the goverment let's this happen is beyond me. Whether they are a willing part of criminal activity or not, the chances of normal life is low.
Is life in Albania so bad that you would consider erasing your identity .

And if you want benefits in a foreign country why would you take the risk of crossing to the U.K.

Many countries with more generous benefits systems you’d have to pass through without the risk of dying in a rough sea.

That’s against their human rights, apparently

They’re not “erasing their identity”. They’re being trafficked. I don’t mean to attack you at all OP, and I mean this gently, but do people understand what trafficking means? Do people really think Albanian girls and women are “erasing their identity” to happily work in forced prostitution?

Saying they are younger happens a lot. At my DC high sch there is a Ukraine just started in year 9. I mMy DS tells me he looks as old as the teacher . I thought he was exaggerating till I picked him up from school and my DS was right he looked about 25. Certainly not 13.

@Allthegoodnamesarechosen Are foreign/foreign and brown people not allowed human rights? Sorry, I don’t really understand the point of the “apparently” there. It would be against your human rights for someone to assess your age unnecessarily too.

And the human rights of children that have to share their classroom with a grown man pretending to be a child is where ??