On a crisp winter day in a small village in the north of the Netherlands, a pile of leaves swirls around in the wind outside a brick house, an ordinary scene except for the CCTV cameras outside the front door and the occupants inside – child victims of trafficking. Many of the children are from Vietnam. They live in this protected shelter to keep them safe from gangs who want to smuggle them out of the Netherlands to the UK.

But an investigation by the Observer and Argos Radio of the Netherlands has revealed that, in the past five years, at least 60 Vietnamese children have disappeared from these shelters. Dutch police and immigration officials suspect the children end up in the UK working on cannabis farms and in nail salons.

The findings of the investigation raise serious questions about the efforts of EU states to prevent the trafficking of vulnerable children, and highlight the failings of the British and Dutch authorities to care for unaccompanied minors properly. A recent report from the group Every Child Protected Against Trafficking (Epcat) revealed that there are more Vietnamese children than any other nationality identified or suspected of being trafficked into the UK.

The Dutch police say that many Vietnamese children travel undocumented to London and Birmingham. Only a few of them have ever been identified. In one case, a 17-year-old Vietnamese boy was trafficked from a shelter in the southern Netherlands to work on a cannabis farm in the UK, before seeking the help of British police, who rescued him.

I realised the shelter was used as a stopover on the way to England Dutch shelter coordinator

When unaccompanied underage asylum seekers arrive in the Netherlands, the Dutch organisation Centraal Orgaan Opvang Asielzoekers (COA: Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers) provides them with a guardian to support them through the asylum process. If the Dutch authorities believe a child may be at risk of potential trafficking they are taken to one of two protected shelters, or Beschermde Opvang. The shelter in the north is operated by Jade, the other in the south by Xonar, both companies under a contract administered by the COA.

Johan van der Have, head of the COA, said that despite his organisation’s efforts to protect Vietnamese children, many simply vanish from the shelters. “The minors disappear, no matter what we do,” he said.

The Observer has seen internal emails from the COA and the police that detail the lengths the Vietnamese children go to in order to escape the shelters – they often study maps, sharpen knives to open windows, and tamper with fire alarms. The reports say that people working at the shelters try to prevent the children escaping but are rarely successful.

Hundreds of trafficked children ‘lost’ by local authorities Read more

Concerns about traffickers’ access to these shelters have been growing. Victoria, the co-ordinator of the shelter in the village in the north of the country, said that the protected shelters are used by traffickers as staging posts, where children who have entered the country illegally and unaccompanied can stay while waiting to be collected by the trafficking gangs. “I realised the shelter was used as a stopover on the way to England,” she said. The traffickers, some from eastern European countries, often wait in cars outside to pick up the children.

The UK is believed to be the end destination for the trafficking ring that starts in Vietnam via eastern Europe and Netherlands and France. The Dutch police say the UK is an attractive smuggling destination because trafficked children can make thousands of pounds a month on cannabis farms and in nail salons. Official UK figures show that hundreds of Vietnamese children are trafficked into the country each year, however the actual number is thought to be much higher. Vietnamese nationals are ranked consistently in the top three of groups identified as potential victims of trafficking in the UK as flagged by the government’s national referral mechanism (NRM). From 2009 to 2018, a total of 3,187 Vietnamese adults and children were referred into the NRM.

But the Dutch government has denied there is an issue. Mark Harbers, the Dutch secretary of state for justice and security, said that previous investigations into disappearances did not lead to evidence of criminal acts. “At the moment there is also no information known to the implementing organisations that a network of people smugglers is involved in the disappearance of underage Vietnamese migrants.”

Herman Bolhaar, the Dutch national rapporteur on trafficking, said this is an international problem that requires an international investigation. “The scope of this issue is so big, both in the Netherlands and internationally, that this is a problem of great concern. We cannot be reassured without exactly knowing where these children are now and where they have ended up. An international in-depth investigation is really needed to get a grip on this.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Modern slavery is an abhorrent crime that this government is committed to stamping out. All frontline Border Force officers are trained in how to identify and deal with potential child victims of modern slavery and human trafficking as well as those who seek to exploit them.

“Border Force also has a network of specially trained Safeguarding and Modern Slavery (SAMS) teams based in all regions. The SAMS officers are operational and are on hand to ensure children and vulnerable people, including potential victims of modern slavery, are dealt with effectively.”

Ismail Einashe and Sanne Terlingen are members of Lost in Europe, a journalism project investigating the disappearance of child migrants in Europe supported by IJ4EU