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Ann Coffey
MP |
The true
scale of Greater Manchester's 'lost' and runaway children crisis was
spelled out in Parliament today.
Stockport MP Ann Coffey is calling on the government to act now to stop
vulnerable missing children falling into the hands of sexual predators.
She says
the system is failing to protect youngsters ' and told ministers at a
debate she led on missing children and sexual exploitation that they
were blind to the true scale of the problem, due to misleading figures.
Thanking the M.E.N. for our investigation ' in which we revealed that
there were more than 11,000 missing children reports in Greater
Manchester last year ' she was unveiling the real size if the challenge
facing her own constituency.
In Stockport, where police believe dozens of vulnerable girls have been
disappearing to be abused by a paedophile ring, she has discovered kids
have already run away from care 771 times this year.
Ms Coffey is currently chairing an inquiry into missing people, which
has heard evidence from Madeleine McCann's mother Kate.
And she has highlighted the disparity between police figures and those
of the Department for Education, which are based on reports from local
authorities.
Government figures indicate only 45 children have disappeared from
Stockport care homes for more than 24 hours in the last three years. Yet
the police give a figure of 25 in the first four months of this year
alone.
Ms Coffey said: 'Missing children will only be protected when they are
seen as a priority for every local authority, every police force, every
school and every community and youth worker in every part of the
country.'
'Together we must make sure that everybody working in this area
understands the link between missing children and harm from sexual abuse
and exploitation.It is only then that we will be able to protect and
safeguard our children in the future from some of the horrific
experiences suffered by our children in the past.' |