Refugee network Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen has raised alarm over the disappearance of 2,241 unaccompanied refugee children in Belgium between 2021 and 2023.

On Wednesday, coinciding with the International Day of the Rights of the Child, the organisation urged immediate action to protect these vulnerable minors.

The network has emphasized the urgent need for more foster care options. With the number of missing young refugees increasing at an alarming rate, it called for expanded capacity for safe, small-scale housing, particularly in areas such as Brussels, Antwerp, and Limburg. “Every child deserves a safe home,” said Tine Claus, the organisation’s director.

To draw attention to the crisis, Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen unveiled an art installation named Issam. On display at the S.M.A.K. museum in Ghent until January, the piece symbolizes a young refugee who has gone missing, depicted as a child playing hide-and-seek with thousands of absent companions.

The situation in Belgium is part of a larger European crisis. According to Lost in Europe, a journalism collective, over 51,000 unaccompanied minors have disappeared across 31 countries between 2021 and 2023.

Italy reported the highest number of missing children at 22,899, followed by Austria with 20,077, and then Belgium. These figures are likely conservative, as many cases remain unregistered. The missing children predominantly come from conflict-ridden areas such as Afghanistan, Syria, and East Africa, making them highly susceptible to exploitation by traffickers and criminal networks.

This latest data underscores the worsening scale of the issue. In a previous report, Lost in Europe found that over 18,000 unaccompanied minors had vanished in Europe between 2018 and 2020, reflecting a troubling upward trend.  Photo by James Gordon from Los Angeles, California, USA, Wikimedia commons.