Eight child asylum seekers, including a three-year-old boy, have gone missing from care since the start of the year, according to figures from the Irish Refugee Council.
The eight are in addition to the five missing young asylum seekers who have been reported in recent days. Gardaí in Ronanstown, Dublin, are still seeking three Moldovan teenage boys aged between 13 and 15 who have been missing for two weeks, a 16-year-old girl from South Africa missing since October 1st and a Russian girl, aged 15, last seen at her care residence in August.
As well as these, however, the Irish Refugee Council is concerned about eight others, none of whom are listed as missing on the Garda website.
They include a three-year-old boy from Sierra Leone who went missing from his place of care in the Dublin region in February. A 14-year-old girl, also from Sierra Leone, disappeared from the same residence at the same time.
It is understood the the older girl is the boy's aunt and that they arrived in the State last year.
A spokesman for the East Coast Area Health Board would not comment on this case, though "extreme concern" was expressed by Mr Itayi Viriri, policy officer with the council.
"We have not been able to get further details on this case but it is of extreme concern especially given the age," he said
All unaccompanied minors who enter the State seeking asylum are taken into the care of the Eastern Area Health Board. It currently has about 220 unaccompanied minors in its care.
Also missing since February are four teenagers. Two boys from Liberia, one aged 16 and the other an " 'aged out" minor - an 18-year-old who arrived in the State as an unaccompanied minor - went missing from their residence. A 16-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl, both from Romania, went missing from separate residences, again in February. In May a 15-year-old Romanian girl went missing from her care placement and in July a 16-year-old, also from Romania, went missing.
Ms Mary King, chairwoman of the Dún Laoghaire Refugee Project, which works with a large number of unaccompanied minors, said she knew of a number of young asylum seekers who have gone missing in the past year. Figures from the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner indicate that so far this year there have been 87 applications for asylum from unaccompanied minors.
