Background
Since 2015 more than 10.000 refugee children disappeared in Europe. The European Police Office (Europol) fears that a lot of these children fell in the hands of criminal organisations that abuse or exploit children. In the best scenario’s those lost children have travelled to another country and are reunited with family. But a lot of them are used for child labour or prostitution, or killed for their organs.
Thousands of refugee children have disappeared in Europe.
Where are they and who will bring them back?
Why isn't more being done
to support these vulnerable children?
In 2015, almost 90.000 unaccompanied children arrived in Europe. That's a huge number. Clearly, individual EU states cannot solve this problem on their own. Looking after children who are already within the asylum system has placed a huge strain on local authorities, at a time when budgets are already under pressure. It is time for collective EU action to tackle the fate of the missing refugee children. The EU is failing to adhere to the very policies it created to protect children. And it seems that the public, too, is turning a blind eye.
That's why we started this art project Lost not Found. To open eyes, to raise awareness and to call out to the European Union to take it's responsibilty.
Collaboration with journalists
In the upcoming months we will search for answers to these questions and call out to the European Union to take its responsibility. We will execute our research and campaign in collaboration with a variety of experts and journalists like Lost in Europe.