The organisation’s concerns come as the country’s police has reported an average of 1 697 children reported missing annually, with many cases likely to going unreported.

The month of May is designated as National Child Protection month and Missing Children SA National Coordinator, Bianca Van Aswagen says the figures are shocking.

“Unfortunately, we do see a lot of children go missing in SA. We've got a lot of cases of children that have been missing for many years. Even dating back to the 1980s. Where children currently are still missing. This is not a new phenomenon we are seeing of children going missing. In SA, of the children going missing, the increasing crime of type towards our children is also in the increase. That is actually, contributing to the fact of children being missing, being kidnapped or trafficked,” Aswagen said.

--SABC--