Some immigrant kids disappear from care to join family abroad, Tusla says – is there a safer way?

Some lone immigrant kids who are taken into care by Tusla, and then disappear, “communicate their intention to travel on to other member states to join family members”, the child and family agency has said. 

Some had said they never wanted to stay here, a Tusla official said in a February 2023 letter to then Green Party TD Neasa Hourigan. 

After they leave, “many get back in touch to advise of their wellbeing”, the letter says.

When kids want to join family in another EU member state, Tusla can help, says a recent report by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA).  

Under the EU’s Dublin III rules, they can open an asylum application for a kid in an EU country in which they have family “legally present”, it says.

In January and February this year, HIQA had a look at how well Tusla has been taking care of unaccompanied kids seeking asylum. 

There had been five cases of family reunification in the preceding 12 months, the report says. And Tusla’s handling of reunification cases generally hasn’t been up to standards, it suggests.

The HIQA report doesn’t say how many of the five family-reunion cases involved kids being reunited with their family in another member state. They could have been reunifications within Ireland.

And spokespeople for HIQA and Tusla didn’t shed light on this in response to queries. The Tusla spokesperson did say, though, that it follows all reunification laws and pathways, including Dublin III rules.

So, what does Tusla do when kids in its care say they want to leave Ireland to join their family abroad – to keep them safe?

It doesn’t decide against taking kids into care just because they said they don’t want to stay in Ireland, its spokesperson said.

If a child seeking asylum alone says they don’t want to stay in Ireland, it supports them with  “reunification assessment and safety planning”, they said. 

If, after the assessment, Tusla concludes that it can’t help reunite a kid with their family, they place them in foster or residential care, the spokesperson said.

“Tusla also collaborates with the Northern Ireland Social Services to keep them informed of any young person [or] children at risk of going missing,” they said.

Children in its care can also access mental-health care support, “including therapeutic, psychological, and counselling services to promote their safety”, the spokesperson said.

Nevertheless, the HIQA report says that in 2024, and before its inspections in January and February, Tusla had raised 50 “need-to-know” alarms for unaccompanied kids – and most of them involved children who had gone missing from care.

“At the time of the inspection, this number had risen to 70,” says its report. 

To meet again

The guidelines for Tusla’s eligibility-for-care examination – a process that can include age assessment – says “Establish if the child has any relatives or known contacts in Ireland including if there is a plan for reunification.”

It doesn’t mention relatives abroad, though. 

Sometimes, it might not be possible to help kids reunite with family in other countries  through safe and regular routes. 

For example, it’s unclear if children can join their family in another EU member state if the family is seeking asylum and still waiting for a decision.

Generally, adults who seek asylum don’t qualify for family reunification until after they get refugee status or some other type of permanent immigration papers.

Children who want to reunite with family in the United Kingdom can’t easily do that either, as – post Brexit – it’s not bound by Dublin III rules, said UK-based immigration barrister Colin Yeo.

“The UK could always allow someone in at their discretion, but there’s no legal mechanism,” said Yeo. 

If Tusla can’t help a kid get back to their family through a legal route, they might opt to go it alone – risking another solo journey undocumented.  

A spokesperson for the Irish Refugee Council (IRC) said it hasn’t really worked with unaccompanied children who told it they want to leave Ireland. So it can’t comment on those cases, they said.

But it’s vital that children access early legal advice that informs them of all their options and routes to safety and stability, they said.

“Viable, safe, and legal family reunification routes can also be explored with the child,” they said.

The HIQA report says Tusla hasn’t been compliant in the small number of family reunification cases it has helped with in 2024.

It reviewed four of the five family reunifications Tusla had worked on in the preceding 12 months, the report says.

In two of those, “there were no records of visits or observations between parent and child [before reunification], no checks with international agencies and no checks with family after reunification had occurred”, it says.

Reviewing the third case showed Tusla hadn’t properly checked if the paperwork filed for reunion was legit by contacting international agencies – such contact, staff said, doesn’t routinely happen, the report says. 

“No evidence of interview with the adult who was reunified with a child,” says the report.

In one case, where checks looked good, there was nothing to suggest that it had progressed to a reunion since August 2024, it says. 

Protecting children 

Lucky Khambule of the Movement for Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI) said it also hasn’t worked with a child who wanted to leave. 

But Tusla should protect children like that, Khambule said. “To make sure that the child is safe.”

But Tusla’s staff did not regularly contact other countries either as part of intake assessments, or to follow up on kids who’d gone missing, the HIQA report says. 

When a 12-year-old kid vanished, in the 18 months before HIQA’s inspection, “there was no records of strategy meetings held with [the Gardaí], or of contact with UK or Northern Ireland counterparts”, says the report.

When a 14-year-old kid went missing, a strategy meeting request was sought five months after they’d disappeared, it says.

A spokesperson for Tusla said it’s very aware of the risks of human trafficking and exploitation that unaccompanied immigrant children face.

It has teamed up with an organisation for countering child trafficking to train staff “on how to recognise indicators of Child Trafficking in Ireland, thereby increasing the Agency’s capacity to respond to this evolving area of need”, they said.

It extended the training programme to include “frontline staff in the community and voluntary services that we fund, particularly those providing residential care”, the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, the HIQA inspections also point to a dearth of social workers, who are essential in helping children apply for asylum and looking out for them generally, says the report. 

“Not all children were allocated a social worker,” it says. And a review showed that some kids who had a social worker weren’t happy with how often they heard from them.

“One complaint related to a social worker not answering their calls and not responding to their needs, such as requests for a mobile phone,” it says.