A leading children's charity tonight called for urgent Government action to tackle the disappearance of over 300 young asylum seekers from State care centres over the past five years.
Barnardos said it was extremely concerned by the disappearance of the young people who arrived in Ireland as unaccompanied minors.
Norah Gibbons, director of advocacy for Barnardo's, said: "The fact is, these children deserve the same consideration of care as their Irish counterparts, and the Irish State is failing in its duty of care to these children by not looking after them within our national acceptable limits of protection."
Figures from the Irish Refugee Council show that 316 children who arrived in the country as unaccompanied minors have gone missing.
"Children are vulnerable and children travelling to a foreign country without the protection of their parents are especially vulnerable to those who would seek to exploit them. We know from international research of the links between children who disappear and child trafficking," Ms Gibbons said.
Last year health authorities introduced changes to ways unaccompanied migrant children were cared for in the state, following the disappearance of 68 minors from care during 2004.
The Health Service Executive in the east coast area developed a new facility for 12 to 16-year-olds and stopped placing the young people in adult hostels. Ms Gibbons insisted these children should be under the 24-hour supervision and care of trained staff with experience of the issues they may be facing.
Barnardos called for the care centres to be equipped with full security safeguards, including monitoring facilities at entrances and exits to establish the last known movements of a child and any visitors they may have received.
The charity's action plan to combat the risks faced by children include establishing adequate standards of care, ensuring children are under 24-hour care and supervision. Another point highlighted was the monitoring of exits and entrances to centres, as well as ensuring the facilities are examined by the Social Service Inspectorate.
Ms Gibbons suggested a Guardian ad Litem should be appointed as a norm, to represent the interests of the individual children.
Barnardos also put forward the idea of creating a national database of all children living in the country.