Serbian NGO chief warns of high number of missing children

Tijana Juric Foundation head Igor Juric said in a live appearance on N1 TV that most of the children disappear from orphanages and foster family homes, adding that many of them are victims of trafficking. “Human traffickers are capable of doing a lot of things because there’s a lot of money at stake,” he warned.  

The Foundation is named after Igor Juric’s daughter who was kidnapped and killed in the summer of 2014. It’s declared mission is to raise awareness about and improve the safety of children in Serbia.  

Juric said that some 1,500 children had been reported missing in Serbia in 2017. “Some 1,300 to 1,500 children disappear in Serbia every year and we as a society are not doing enough and not caring enough for the children or about the reasons why they go missing,” he said.  

The police reactions are not good enough in cases of missing children, he added. “The police does not understand the importance of cooperation with NGOs like the Tijana Juric Foundation,” he warned.  

Juric said he wants Serbia to join the Child Alert system which exists in 12 countries.  

He recalled estimates that some 10,000 migrant children had disappeared along the so-called Balkan Route. “Those children were at the mercy of anyone who wanted to abuse them. The fact is that a lot of children were abused and that we, as human beings, are not doing enough to protect those and our own children,” Juric said.  

Fourteen trafficking cases, 10 of which were children trafficking cases, were reported this year to the Centre for the Protection of Trafficking Victims but that is not a realistic figure because children are usually too scared to report kidnappings, Juric said.