WHERE ARE THE MISSING CHILDREN?

Police have no accurate stats, many cases go unreported

- WENDY JASSON DA COSTA [e-mail]

SOUTH Africa cannot answer one of the simplest questions: how many children disappear each year? The chilling truth is that hundreds, possibly thousands, remain missing, while families are left in anguish.

Children disappear for many reasons: abduction, kidnapping, human trafficking and sexual exploitation, while others are murdered.

The police do not include missing children in their regular crime statistics.

In May, Saps said that 2963 children were reunited with their families from 2020 - 1919 girls and 967 boys. Experts say the figures are not a true reflection of the crisis.

"Saps last released stats in 2013 specifically on children going missing," said Bianca van Aswegen, a criminologist and the national coordinator for Missing Children South Africa,

"Even if we had statistics on children going missing, it's still only a small amount. Many cases go unreported, especially in rural areas. Families are also exploiting them for trafficking."

Van Aswegen says underreporting reasons include a lack of trust in the police or not knowing the reporting procedure.

Sometimes social media posts are created about missing children, but it's not an official missing persons case because it's not reported to Saps.

Van Aswegen says the number of cases they receive increases annually. "We're seeing children going missing from school, children going missing from home, children going missing from shopping centres."

Another complication is that the police’s missing persons list is not updated regularly. "There's a lot of people that have already been found that are still listed as missing. There's also a lot missing whose details are still not being circulated," Van Aswegen noted.

She says missing children must be reported immediately; there’s no 24-hour waiting period. “That's an absolute myth...it needs to be reported to your nearest police station immediately.”