Romanian Center for Missing & Sexually Exploited Children

FOCUS – Romanian Center for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children carries out the following activities for assisting the police in investigating and identifying missing children:

• Makes available the toll-free number 116 000 – European number for missing children, which can be used from all the fixed or mobile networks, being permanently available both for reporting cases of missing children and reports of sightings; the call center operates 24 h a day, seven days a week;
• Prepares missing children posters (A4/A3) and flyers (A6) (on paper) containg the photo and description of the child and then sends these materialis via express courier to the:
• County Police Inspectorate (IPJ) – Criminal Investigation Department
• Local Police
• Community Police
• Railway Police
• Gendarmerie
• Family of the missing child

• Puts up the photo and description of the missing child, with the help of:
• National Society of Romanian Railways – SNCFR (posters in the most important stations in every county)
• Volunteers.

• Disseminates the case by means of TV plasmas located in various public places. The counties which can be covered on the basis of the cooperation with 12 specialized companies: Bucharest, Arad, Bacau, Botosani, Brasov, Braila, Buzau, Cluj, Constanta, Dolj, Galati, Iasi, Maramures, Neamt, Prahova, Sibiu, Suceava, Timis, Vaslui, Vrancea;
• Uploads the case on FOCUS website (www.copiidisparuti.ro) and GMCN site - Global Missing Children Network (www. icmec.org);
• Gets in contact with publishers and broadcasters in order to disseminate specific cases and promote campaigns (grouping more cases) depending on each case;

• Gets in contact with public and private social authorities which have shelters/receiving centers, in order to verify whether the missing children are not in those centers
• Keeps in touch with the missing child’s family, offering emotional support and obtaining useful information in searching and identifying the child (e.g. obtaining the approval for disseminating the case, etc).
• Gets in contact and cooperates for identifying missing children having a international search warrant with similar centers, members of FOCUS and the European Federation for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children from the following countries: Greece, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Hungary, France, Denmark, Czech Republic, Polland, Great Britain, Austria, Germany, Porutgal and Ireland.

• Contacts other public or private authorities for searching and identifying the child (e.g – Labour Inspection Department– for the cases in which there are hints according to which the child might be the victim of labour exploitation);
• Immediately informs the police on all the details resulting after contacting the family or other national or international authorities;
• At the request of the police, transmits to the County Police Inspectorate – Missing Person Unit a report with all the measure taken by FOCUS for each case;
• At the request of the police, produces ”age progression” images of children who have gone missing a long time ago (at the time being, they should be adults), observing the below criteria (details about the process, including criteria and an example)

• Monitors the situation of the child, after (s)he is found, with a view to preventing the relapse – refers the social authorities (Public Services for Social Assistance, General Directions for Social Assistance and Child’s Protection, National Authority for Family and Child’s Rights and other NGOs) with a view to identifying adequate solutions for:
• Assisting the family in the process of bringing up and educating the child
• Preventing relapse
• Establishing some special measures of protection, where it is needed.