Missing Children Europe > What we do > Disappearance of children in migration

INTERACT: Towards a more efficient cooperation across borders for the protection of children in migration from trafficking and exploitation

Thanks to the INTERACT project, Missing Children Europe and its partners were able to identify existing gaps and practices of frontline agencies, as well as other actors, when working on cases of missing children at risk of (re)trafficking. The partnership addressed these challenges by exploring and analysing existing good practices.

As a result, the 6 participating countries (Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Sweden and the UK), created an informal network of professionals, which allows for more awareness of the different working methods, procedures and ensues that everyone is well equipped to work better together, particularly relating to cross border cases.

We developed new tools to improve the protection of children in migration at risk of trafficking

and exploitation across borders, and the daily work of the professionals concerned

Watch Abena's story and learn what can be done to improve the situation of children in migration.

Report on multi-agency practical simulations on fictional cases in Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, the United Kingdom and Sweden

This publication gives an insightful overview of the problem regarding missing children in migration, the risks that they face and how trafficking and exploitation affect children in the countries where the project took place. Key elements include legislation and policy context in participating countries, summary of the methodology, a roadmap guiding the progress on protection of children at risk, and goals by 2024 and more.

Practical guidance on preventing and responding to trafficking and disappearances of children in migration

This handbook addresses most of the identified gasps in protecting migrant children at risk of (re) trafficking. It aims to stimulate and disseminate practices on how to better cooperate in prevention, response and after care missing or exploited children in migration, including when the case involves multiple countries. It also provides users with with practical ready-to-use tools in the form of a checklist templates, standardised flowcharts of action and more.

How better cross-border cooperation will prevent trafficking of children in migration

Published in 2019, this policy brief was a joint collaboration between Missing Children Europe and ECPAT UK. Read the report, which includes a summary of the main challenges encountered by agencies and organisation and 10 key steps to improve collaboration. This paper was developed with the support of the Initiative for children in migration and the European Programme for integration and migration.