Fine Gael has expressed concern that some immigrant children have been trafficked into the sex industry after some 441 foreign children went missing from State care over seven years.
The party’s immigration spokesman Denis Naughten said figures from the Department of Justice showed 441 children went missing between 2000 and 2007.
“Of these, 388 remain unaccounted for to this day - 88 per cent of the total,” Mr Naughten said.
“When I raised this issue recently with former justice minister Brian Lenihan he said he would pursue it with the HSE. However, there needs to be evidence of action being taken.”
Last year, 31 children - a quarter of all those who were placed in State care after they arrived unaccompanied from outside the EU - disappeared, Mr Naughten said.
“They include five young Nigerian girls who vanished in June 2007, the youngest of whom was just 11 years old.”
“While the majority of children placed in care by the Immigration Service are in the 16 to 17 year age range, there have been cases of much younger children, some as young as 11, going missing from care.
“It is widely understood that some of these separated children are trafficked into the sex industry. But as far as the Government is concerned, these children seem to have evaporated into thin air,” Mr Naughten said.
“This issue has also been shamefully overlooked in the new Immigration Bill, which does not provide adequate protection for separated children.”
He said child trafficking is a “sick, reprehensible business” and that Ireland had been pinpointed as one of the easiest trafficking routes into Britain.
“Since 2004, 330 children are known to have been trafficked into the UK through various routes, which experts believe is only the tip of the iceberg.”
Mr Naughten called for assurances form Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern that a proper system will be put in place to ensure that vulnerable children do not continue falling into the hands of traffickers.
“The HSE has stated that some of these children were rescued from ‘desperate situations’ when taken into care. There is no justification for facilitating their return to such a situation.”