7,000 care kids 'lost'

A STAGGERING 7,080 kids in care have VANISHED in the past eight years, new figures reveal.

Nearly a third - 2,240 - disappeared from council- run children's homes.

Experts last night warned that hundreds could have fallen prey to people traffickers and been forced into prostitution.

Last year 980 kids went missing - up from 810 in 2001 - as Britain's care system descended into chaos. Of those, 310 disappeared from council children's homes - the highest number in eight years.

One of the worst offenders is Haringey Council, which failed to save the life of Baby P.

A total of 150 kids in the London borough have gone missing from care since 2001, according to the latest local authority figures.

Nationally, it is estimated there are up to 5,000 trafficked youngsters, and there was a 50 per cent increase in the rate of recorded child trafficking in Britain between 2007 and 2009.

Clare Tickell, of the charity Action for Children said: "It's tragic that so many vulnerable children have gone missing from care - the one place where they should have felt safe.

Abducted

"It is particularly worrying given the rise in trafficking. More must be done to understand why children go missing from care."

Most of the youngsters are runaways unhappy with their care placements. Many go to live with a friend or relative.

But others are immigrants who arrive alone in the UK without visas and are targeted by traffickers.

It is feared at least 77 Chinese kids were abducted from a care home near London's Heathrow Airport and forced into prostitution and to work on cannabis farms between 2006-8. Only four have ever been found.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families said: "We are concerned about any children that go missing from local authority care. It is their duty to make sure children are properly safeguarded."

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