THOUSANDS of young African children are going missing from schools in Britain every year, child welfare experts have said.

Police investigating the murder of a boy whose torso was left in the Thames confirmed yesterday that 300 black boys aged 4 to 7 had vanished from schools between the summer and autumn terms in 2001.

Charities and social work professionals said that the numbers going missing annually probably ran into the thousands. “All we know is that we don’t know how many are missing. And that’s just as worrying as knowing the actual number,” Barbara Hutchinson, of the British Association for Adoption & Fostering, said.

The revelation highlights the enormous difficulties that public authorities have in keeping tabs on migrant children brought to live in Britain with relatives or friends in private fostering arrangements.

The charity estimates that between 15,000 to 20,000 migrant children are living in such arrangements throughout Britain. Many have been sent, often from West African countries, by parents who hope their children will have a chance of a better life in Britain.

But police officers and social care professionals believe that significant numbers may become victims of child-trafficking and exploitation.

Some are passed repeatedly between adults, who use them to gain access to child-related state benefits and housing. Others are forced to become domestic slaves for other migrant families or forced into prostitution.

The issue came to light when Metropolitan police officers investigating the Thames torso murder attempted to identify the boy, who they named Adam, and whose remains were found in September 2001, by asking every education authority in London how many black boys aged between 4 and 7 had gone missing since the end of the summer term that year. Of the 300 boys subsequently listed, police were able to find only two. Most of those questioned said the children had returned to Africa. Adam has still not been identified.

The Metropolitan Police said yesterday that they were no longer seeking the 300 as there was no reason to believe that anything sinister had happened to them, and none had been reported missing. John Coughlan, of the Association of Directors of Social Services, said that unless the children had prior contact with social services, social workers would be unlikely to look for them either.

Plans to introduce an electronic file on every child in Britain would make it easier to trace such children, as the database would enable agencies to share information about their welfare and whereabouts.

The Department of Education, which is responsible for children’s social care, said it was discussing with the Home Office what immigration officers could do to ensure that children who come to this country to be privately fostered were brought to the attention of their local authority.

Measures would also be introduced in July to require local authorities “to take a more pro-active approach” to getting private foster carers to register. Felicity Collier, chief executive of the charity, called for a law requiring the compulsory registration of all private carers.

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