HSE warns of exploitation risk to asylum children
21/11/2005 - 08:19:35The Health Service Executive has reportedly slammed the Government for failing to provide the resources needed to prevent asylum-seeking children from being exploited.
Reports this morning said the body had warned the Department of Health that foreign children who have disappeared from its care in recent years may have become the victims of exploitation.
The HSE believes some of these children are being sexually or financially exploited.
In a letter to the department, the executive has reportedly accused the Government of failing to respond to repeated requests for additional resources to prevent such exploitation.
Around 250 unaccompanied minors seeking political asylum in Ireland have disappeared from the care of the health service in the past four years.
