Greek officials accused over disappearance of 'traffic light children'

Greek authorities are being pressed to launch an official inquiry into the disappearance of hundreds of smuggled immigrant children from state reception centres.

The Swiss Terre Des Hommes foundation claims it has evidence of negligence and corruption at institutions set up by Greece to help illegally trafficked Albanian children escape forced labour on the streets. At one centre in Athens where children were taken after being arrested for begging, 75 per cent of residents went missingbetween 1998 and 2001. "At Agia Varvara, 487 children out of 644 children received there disappeared," Pierre Philippe, of Terre Des Hommes, said.

In the Nineties, a wave of illegal immigration from formerly communist Albania swept Greece. Children, often as young as four, were a common sight begging or selling small items at road junctions. Known to Greeks as the "Children of the traffic lights", as many as 3,000 minors, almost all Albanian, worked the streets of Athens alone, earning money for trafficking gangs. Police staged mass arrests, and the under-12s were held in social service detention centres for deportation.

But the foundation says few of the children found their way home to Albania. Traffickers posed as parents to reclaim children and in some cases bribed Greek officials for them. "We know traffickers have paid up to €500 (£320) to reclaim their 'property'," the report stated. Officials at Agia Varvara centre refused to comment.

Children working the streets can earn up to €50 a day for their handlers, social workers say. Most are in networks of six to10 working for a central "Fagin figure", although there are reports of individuals controlling up to 200 children.

Mr Philippe blamed institutional racism for the centre's treatment of children who had already been stolen from their families by traffickers or sold to them by the parents. Greater social awareness on both sides of the border of the exploitation of trafficked children has helped to decrease numbers but left open the question of what happened to those smuggled into Greece in the past decade.

About 20,000 illegal immigrants are believed to be working as prostitutes in Greece, 2,000 of whom are minors. Research shows up to 200 children are being exploited by paedophiles. Experts believe several children have been murdered and others died in traffic accidents. A few personal testimonies suggest some fell victim to the trade in human organs.

* Four illegal immigrants drowned and several others were feared dead yesterday after two smuggling boats were caught in a storm off Athens.