Over 10,000 child migrants have disappeared after arriving in Europe.

According to Europol’s chief of staff, Brian Donald, no less than 10,000 migrant children went missing in Europe. It is feared that some of them fell in the hands of drug gangs, human traffickers, or were sold into the sex industry. Others may have travelled to family or friends in Europe without reporting it. They have all but disappeared.

The plight of unaccompanied child migrants is one of the most pressing issues in the migrant crisis. The goal of Lost in Europe is to recover the stories of these missing children. It comprises a team of investigative journalists from the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and the UK, who are collaborating to find out what has happened to the disappeared children in Europe.

Supported by news organisations, such as BBC Radio 4 News, VPRO, De Standaard, Small Stream Media and Il Fatto Quotidiano this investigative journalism project will shine a light on wrongdoing and tell the stories of disappeared child migrants in the EU. This cross-border project is backed up by the Investigative Journalism for the EU Fund, VNJB and FondsBJP.

Our team of experienced investigative journalists consists of Sanne Terlingen and Hannah Kooy in the Netherlands, Chloë Carlens and Kasper Goethals in Belgium, Ismael Einashe in the UK and Cecilia Ferrara in Italy.

Together with Geesje van Haren and IJsbrand van Veelen of Small Stream Media, social science researcher Jitse Schuurmans and visual storyteller Saskia de Wildt, we will publish our findings in weekly blogs and reports on the Lost in Europe-website, on Argos, a Dutch award winning investigative radio programme, on the BBC, in Newsweek Europe, in Il Fatto Quotidiano in Italy and in Weltsichten (Germany).*

This project is made possible with the generous support of Fonds Bijzondere Journalistieke Projecten; Lira Startsubsidie for young journalists; NWO; SIA in the Netherland, VNJB (Netherlands/Belgium) and the European IJ4EU Fund.

Partner Organizations: BBC, Newsweek Europe, Argos (Human/VPRO), Il Fatto Quotidiano, Weltsichten, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Hogeschool Utrecht, Free Press Unlimited, Terre des Hommes,

Lost in Europe collaborates with ‘Exploring Journalism’s Limits’, financed by NWO, the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research and SIA, the Dutch Organization for Applied Research. This project is a collaboration between the Rijksuniversteit Groningen, Hogeschool Utrecht, VersPers and Alab.