Hundreds of African boys have disappeared from London schools, police investigating the murder of a boy whose torso was left in the Thames have said. Scotland Yard asked London education authorities how many black boys aged four to seven had vanished from school.
Between July and September 2001, 300 had disappeared, and police fear thousands may go missing annually.
Child welfare experts say the figures hint at the scale of child trafficking, sometimes for labour or benefit fraud.
A previous BBC investigation found some African children were being held by their parents' creditors, so they could claim extra benefits.
The boy found in the River Thames in September 2001 - called Adam by police - is thought to have been the victim of a ritual killing after being brought to London from Nigeria.
Detective Chief Inspector Will O'Reilly said inquiries revealed 300 black boys of a similar age to Adam had not reported back to school in the three months before his death and were "lost into the system".
They are being trafficked, they are being emotionally abused, there are incidences of domestic slavery, there is physical abuse, sexual abuse
"It is a large figure - far more than we anticipated when we started this line of inquiry," Mr O'Reilly said.
Of the missing boys, 299 came from Africa and one from the Caribbean.
Despite an international search, police were able to find only two of them, Mr O'Reilly said. Most of those questioned said the children had returned to Africa.
While there is nothing to suggest these children have been murdered, a lack of immigration records makes them almost impossible to trace, police say.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4541603.stm