Even if the total number of reports is down 5.1% compared to 2022, it “remains significant with more than 110 children reported missing every day”, warns the Children’s Rights Foundation.
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Runaways who are younger and younger, increase in parental kidnappings… In total, 40,989 disappearances of minors were reported to the police in 2023, according to the Children’s Rights foundation in charge of 116,000, the number emergency dedicated to this problem. Even if the total number of reports is down 5.1% compared to 2022, it “remains significant with more than 110 children reported missing every day”said the foundation in a report published on Saturday May 25, on the occasion of the International Day of Missing Children.
The drop was particularly observed in terms of runaways (39,069, or 5.9% less over one year). However, they still represent more than 95% of the total reports made to law enforcement, the report specifies. Conversely, reports relating to worrying disappearances (1,259, an increase of 10%) and parental kidnappings (661, or 21.5% more) experienced a significant increase, according to figures from the Ministry of Defense. ‘Interior cited in the report.
The number of calls received at 116,000 increased by more than 10% in one year (35,186), with an increase noted at the time of the media coverage of the disappearances of Emile and Lina. Of these 35,000 calls, 1,300 required the tracking cell to be entered.
“The trends that we have observed in recent years seem to be confirmed with younger and younger people running away and an increasingly marked link between multiple runaways and sexual exploitation”worries Julien Landureau, spokesperson for the foundation, to AFP. “The monitoring unit notably received files concerning young people aged 13 or 14, or even 11 years old”he adds.
At the origin of the runaway, a conflict with the parent or guardian (35% of cases), a phenomenon of control, delinquency or bad company (23%) or psychological suffering (13%) due in particular situations of violence or harassment. As for prostitution, it is suspected or proven in 4% of the files opened by the 116,000 in 2023, a figure which exceeds 30% when it concerns young girls on the run.