THE FACT OF THE MATTER
BY PAUL HOPKINS
The discovery of the remains of a three-year-old boy after a two-week excavation in Donabate in north Dublin is tragic news. The boy had not been seen for the last four years, leading to Gardaí investigating, folowing a tip-off that the boy was buried near where the rmains have been found.
The dead child has been named by Gardaí as Daniel Aruebose.
Though not related, another boy of similar age has not been seen for three to four years, having spent time in the Dundalk area of Co. Louth. Fears are he, too, is dead.
CEO Kate Duggan confirms that Tusla provided the ‘Donabate family’ with care and support from 2017 to 2020. She said the initial indications showed there were no concerns about any need for child protection. Tusla’s direct involvement ended “because it was deemed to be the most appropriate step to take”.
The majority of children who have gone missing on Irish soil are migrants. From 2017 to this date, at least 137 have gone missing, 54 of them unaccompanied children, who arrive in Ireland without an adult looking after them, and have gone missing while under Tusla’s care, according to the agency’s figures.
Shockingly, of these, only 18 children have been found, returned or accounted for, the figures suggest.
It’s important that the Government publicises the disappearance of unaccompanied minors, says Fiona Finn, CEO of the National Association of Sexual Care (NASC), a migrant and refugee rights non-profit agency.
“They do not have family members in Ireland who can advocate for them or speak to the press,” Finn says.
With these cases there appears to be a lot of contention between the Gardaí and Tusla.And not much joined-up thinking. Not least is that not all of those missing are loaded up onto the Ireland section of a global database that Gardaí initially said showed “all missing children in Ireland”. Tusla say An Garda Síochána are responsible for the database, “and queries related to its use would be best directed to [them]”, while a Garda spokesperson says an international non-profit for missing and exploited children runs the website, but that it too has access to the database.
“The Missing Persons Unit are the main users and the Garda Press Office have access if they require to upload details of a child in advance of a CRI [Child Rescue Ireland] alert,” says the spokesperson. But they don’t say why Tusla’s figures for children who are still missing differ from the numbers on the database.
Meantime, a spokesperson for the Department of Children and Equality says that decisions including “what and how information about the child may be released to the public if the child is not located” and arrangements for their return, if found, are a matter between Tusla and An Garda Síochána “in line with their agreed protocol”. They don’t say exactly what the protocols are, but that Gardaí have “primary responsibility for investigating the child’s whereabouts”.
What has become of Ireland’s missing children?
Ruth Breslin, the Director of the Sexual Exploitation Research and Policy Institute (SERP), says: “The split between migrant versus Irish children who have gone missing is striking. It is clear that when an Irish child goes missing these cases receive greater public attention and enter the public consciousness.
“In contrast, the man or woman on the street is unlikely to be able to name the migrant children who have gone missing in Ireland.I suspect many of these children are unaccompanied minors with no loved ones in the State to sound the alarm and advocate for their safe return.”
Many agencies fear some of the children may have been subjected to human trafficking, that is the transporting of people for exploitation. Victims are trafficked into various types of work, including farm work, domestic work and forced prostitution. They may be subjected to sexual abuse and other forms of violence.
The Government last year approved plans for a revised National Referral Mechanism (NRM) to make it easier for victims of human trafficking to get support from State and civil organisations.
Under the new scheme, several State and non-governmental organisations would join with An Garda Síochána in identifying victims of human trafficking and providing them with access to the range of support services available through the NRM.
These changes are set out in the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Act 2024.
To date, this part of the Act has not been commenced.
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Daniel, Ar dheis De a anam
