According to the "Lost in Europe" network, 50 children or young people disappear every day. Italy is in first place, followed by Austria. In response to an APA inquiry, the Ministry of the Interior in Vienna stated that the narrative of "disappearing without a trace" into possible criminal structures was "untenable" from a police expert's point of view.

Ministry: Most of those who disappear reappear
In the years 2021 to 2023, around 19,000 asylum seekers were counted in Austria who claimed to be unaccompanied and minors when applying and who had evaded the asylum procedure in Austria, the majority of them Afghans. However, most of them would reappear after consultations with other EU states within the framework of the Dublin Agreement.

The special investigators at the Federal Criminal Police Office are not aware of a single case of human trafficking involving an unaccompanied minor in Austria in the past 20 years. In Italy, the situation is likely to be different: "Foreign minors who disappear are often victims of the criminal underworld or of exploiters," says Carla Garlatti, head of the Italian child protection agency "Guarantor of Childhood", to the Italian news agency ANSA. "In a center for underage girls, we were told that one or two young girls disappeared every night and that there are often cars parked outside where people offer the girls work," Garlatti explains.

The number was much lower in an earlier investigation
Fifteen countries responded to Lost in Europe's request for data, with Spain, the UK, France and Greece missing from the list. "Lost in Europe conducted a similar study in 2021 for the years 2018 to 2020. At that time, 18,000 unaccompanied foreign minors went missing in three years.