Kidnapping, embezzlement, crime or simply running away.... 43,870 disappearances of minors were reported to the police and gendarmerie in France in 2021 - around 120 per day -, according to the "
116,000 Disappeared Children
".
This European emergency number, open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, accompanies each year hundreds of families who are victims of the disappearance of children by providing them with psychological, social, educational and legal support.
Coordinated and managed by the "
Droit d'Enfance
" foundation, this number received 30,823 calls in 2021.
Read also“Every day, I wait for my daughter to come home”: the cry from the heart of these fathers who are victims of parental abduction
Among the 43,870 minors registered in the file of wanted persons (RPF), the Ministry of the Interior counts 545 minors kidnapped or diverted - a figure which remains minimized while many parents affected by parental abduction fail to file a complaint - , 922 minors whose disappearance is considered worrying - in most cases these are runaways that last over time and during which all contact has been broken -, and finally 42,151 minors declared to have run away.
A slight “catch-up” in 2021
“
The slight increase observed this year, with 2,764 additional reports compared to the previous year, does not reveal anything alarming
”, estimates the 116,000 Disappeared Children.
The year 2020 had indeed been marked by a very marked drop in reports due to the various episodes of confinement.
A slight “
catching up
” phenomenon therefore seems to have taken place in 2021.
The 116,000 Disappeared Children notes that "
certain underlying trends have been confirmed this year, in particular the increase in prostitutional behavior observed in particular among young girls during runaway episodes
".
As a reminder, a national plan to combat the prostitution of minors was published by the French government on November 15, 2021. Around 10,000 minors are said to be victims of prostitution in France today.
Recent example, a young girl who disappeared in July 2019 in the Paris region was found a few days ago.
She would have admitted to prostitution since her disappearance at the age of 16.