Nursery World - Without a trace

<P>Investigations into high-profile cases have highlighted shortcomings in the way children brought into the UK are recorded and protected, reports <B>Beatrix Campbell</B> </P>

Investigations into high-profile cases have highlighted shortcomings in the way children brought into the UK are recorded and protected, reports Beatrix Campbell

When the Metropolitan police announced recently that inquiries into the disappearance of the boy known as Adam had uncovered 300 missing black boys - all around the same age, and almost all of them African - the implications were awesome.

'Adam', whose torso was found in the Thames, has been traced back to West Africa, a region mired in armed conflict and misery. Were these other missing boys dead, dismembered and dumped in rivers? Were they hidden in cults? Were they commodities servicing mysterious networks beyond the reach of all investigators? The answers to all these questions is: we don't know.

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