Trafficking fears for children missing from care

West Sussex council has had more than 100 children and young people go missing from its care over the last eight years, prompting fears they may have been trafficked.

Figures obtained by the Care Leavers' Association from 172 local authorities in England and Wales show that between 376 and 389 children and young people have gone missing in care from 2000 and have not been traced since.

West Sussex reported losing 110 young people since 2000, 73 of whom were under 18, by far the largest number of all respondents. A further six local authorities could not respond to the survey because they keep no record of children who have gone missing from their care. In total 41 local authorities have had children and young people go missing.

The figures reveal that the children going missing are mainly from local authorities in south east England and are largely asylum seeking young people.

Victoria Hull, national development worker at the Care Leavers' Association, said the concern was that the young people had been trafficked.

"It is our suspicion," she said. "Other organisations that have done research have show that asylum seeking young people are brought into the country then vanish from care. Our figures show a lot of young people are going missing in the south east, where there are airports, so trafficking is the suspicion."

West Sussex has high numbers of unaccompanied asylum seeking young people arriving at Gatwick airport and currently looks after between 40 and 50 asylum-seeking children.