Nearly 6,000 refugee minors disappear in Germany in 2015

Nearly 6,000 young refugees disappeared in Germany in 2015, while the German government has no indications of their whereabouts, German media reported on Monday.

As 2,171 of 8,006 underage refugees reported as being missing had resurfaced, a total of 5,835 young refugees remained missing in Germany in 2015, Germany's third largest newspaper and magazine publisher Funke Mediengruppe reported, citing a reply from the German Interior Ministry to a parliamentary inquiry.

The missing, unaccompanied minors were mostly from Afghanistan, Syria, Eritrea, Morocco and Algeria, said the report.

Meanwhile, every tenth missing refugee minors is a child. In Germany, child refers to any person under the age of 14.

However, the German Interior Ministry could not give reasons for their disappearance, according to the report.

In late March, several members of the European Parliament have pointed out in a letter that missing underage refugees might be victims of pan-European gangs who abused them for sex, slavery or organ trafficking.

Source: XINHUA