More than 1,000 children and teens are considered missing in Israel, according
to information released Monday by the National Council for the
Child.
Improving the flow of information between government ministries
and the police could either prevent or solve these cases, the NCC
said.
The information was released to specifically raise attention to
the case of 15- year-old Nofar Ben-Hemo, who has been missing since December 17.
She was last seen leaving her home in Lod at 9 p.m., she did not take her mobile
phone with her and her parents have not heard from her since then.
Even
though the police started to investigate her disappearance within 24-hours of it
being reported, there is still little information as to what happened to
Ben-Hemo.
According to NCC Executive Director Dr. Yitzhak Kadman,
Ben-Hemo’s story is not unusual for many of the teens missing in
Israel.
“No one believes that she has been kidnapped, but still no one
knows where she is,” he told
The Jerusalem Post, highlighting that one of the
main problems is the failure to share information between the police and the
Ministries of Welfare and Social Affairs and Education.
“The problem is
that the police receive information and they do not pass it on to the Ministry
of Welfare and Social Services or a child has problems in school or does not
show up for a week and that information is not shared elsewhere either,” said
Kadman, emphasizing “there needs to be much more synchronization between the
police that will prevent this and help to find these kids.”
The
information provided by the NCC, which is based on official police statistics,
shows that in 2010, 1,070 children ranging from one to 17 were reported missing.
The majority of the children, 980, were over the age of 12; 14 were aged one to
five; and 76 were between 11 and 16.
Six hundred seventy girls and 400
boys are missing.
Most of the missing children came from the periphery –
either the North or South – and that many of the children’s families were
impoverished or faced severe difficulties.
Kadman said that in many
cases, the children were among those that the state considers “at-risk,” and
they end up on the streets for a wide range of different reasons, often due to
abuse or neglect.
He said many of the children who find themselves on the
streets end up falling victim to criminal rings or individuals that take
advantage of the situation.
In November, youth-at-risk organization Elem
reported to the Knesset on an alarming increase in the number of youths being
drawn into the sex industry, including prostitution, in order to survive on the
streets.
While Kadman said that not all those missing children were
likely to work in the sex industry, he did point out that the phenomenon is very
worrying and the authorities need to be doing more to prevent it from
happening.
Last month, a State Comptroller’s report slammed the various
government agencies, including the police, for not adequately sharing
information about children at risk.
“The State Comptroller’s Office views
with severity the poor communications between the police, hospitals and health
clinics and the Departments of Welfare and Social Services in the local
municipalities,” wrote the report’s authors. “This means that hundreds of people
are not receiving the help and treatment that they need.”
The comptroller
also pointed out that the situation comes nearly two years after a Welfare
Ministry report emphasized that helping children at risk should take precedence
over the right to privacy – and more than a year-and-a-half after the
Ministerial Committee for Welfare and Social Services proposed legislation to
enable those who encounter cases of child abuse to immediately share the
information with welfare officers.
Kadman said that while such
legislation was important, it was not the only answer to this growing
problem.
“We should not have to wait until a law is passed,” he
said.
“It is just common sense that such vital information is shared
between all those who are working with children.”
In response, Israel
Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said that a great deal of information is
shared between the police and other relevant government authorities, including
the social services and the local authorities.
Meanwhile, the Knesset
Committee for Welfare, Labor and Health, chaired by MK Haim Katz (Likud),
approved on Monday to extend the activities of the National Insurance
Institute’s Fund for Children at Risk for a further three years.
The
fund, whose budget must be re-approved every three years by the Knesset, was
founded in 2004 and subsidizes a wide range of programs and services for
children and youth at risk. Its NIS 18 million annual budget is in addition to
Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs’ National Program for Children at
Risk.
Katz said Monday that he planned to draft legislation that would
make the National Insurance Institute’s Fund a permanent program.