:00:32. > :00:39.Welcome to Reporters. From here at reporters to bring you the best
:00:39. > :00:45.missing children, we had a special issue on looking at the issue
:00:45. > :00:49.around the world. Coming up - every parent's worst nightmare. We meet
:00:49. > :00:55.the parents of Katrice Lee who has been missing for 30 years. We had
:00:55. > :01:04.no support. Do you believe that the system failed you and your family?
:01:04. > :01:08.Yes. They failed my it two-year-old child. Sold into the sex trade. We
:01:08. > :01:14.visit the Thai capital Bangkok where thousands of children are
:01:14. > :01:19.traffic each year. Paedophiles come to party here. Why is this going
:01:19. > :01:22.on? The children they are using did not have papers. The children they
:01:22. > :01:26.use cannot be tracked. What we have here is that we are looking for
:01:26. > :01:31.victims but we did not know who they are. We report from Mexico on
:01:31. > :01:36.the thousands of children who go missing two drug gains every year.
:01:36. > :01:39.TRANSLATION: It is under scramble to lose a child. It is a pain like
:01:39. > :01:44.they have to on a heart out. It is like your life does not have
:01:44. > :01:48.meaning any more. -- like they have to warn your heart out.
:01:48. > :01:52.It is the worst nightmare for every parent. The child who goes missing.
:01:52. > :01:55.It affects at least 8 million children around the world every
:01:56. > :02:00.year according to the Centre for Missing and exploited children. In
:02:00. > :02:04.many cases, the child is found within hours but in the rarest of
:02:04. > :02:08.situations, the ordeal can last months or even years. We have a
:02:08. > :02:13.series of stories from families from different parts of the world.
:02:13. > :02:16.In the first of these reports, I go to the south of England did to meet
:02:16. > :02:22.Sharon Lee whose daughter Katrice Lee has been missing for 30 years.
:02:22. > :02:29.This is her story. She was a delightful, happy and
:02:29. > :02:32.little girl. She absolutely adored her older sister. They were quite
:02:32. > :02:38.happy, and it has she was happy to let her play with her and her
:02:38. > :02:43.friends. They idolise one another. -- Natasha. They had been naughty
:02:43. > :02:52.moments that most T Roberts do that she was a happy child. This is in
:02:52. > :02:58.West Germany, 1981. Home to a British army base. In November that
:02:58. > :03:08.year, their lives changed for ever. Until 20th November, 1981 we were a
:03:08. > :03:11.normal and happy family. After that time, our normal wife stopped, if
:03:11. > :03:17.you like, and the only way I can explain it is that we have been
:03:17. > :03:20.living a nightmare ever since then. -- normal life. Katrice Lee
:03:21. > :03:25.disappeared from a supermarket on her second birthday. It is a day
:03:25. > :03:29.that her mother will never forget. I went to the checkout and I
:03:29. > :03:32.realised I had forgotten some crisps from a Tea Party a was
:03:32. > :03:37.having that afternoon. I put them down by the checkout and asked my
:03:37. > :03:40.sister to keep an eye on her as they go back and get some crisps. I
:03:40. > :03:45.went back to the Isle, pick them up and got back to the checkout and
:03:45. > :03:50.asked my sister where Katrice Lee had gone and she said that she had
:03:50. > :03:55.gone after me, back up the aisle and that was the last time that my
:03:55. > :03:58.daughter was ever seen. In 1981, the British Royal Military Police
:03:58. > :04:03.led the investigation into her disappearance but have since
:04:03. > :04:06.admitted that mistakes were made at the time. My current chief officer
:04:06. > :04:12.has openly admitted that there were flaws in that original
:04:12. > :04:16.investigation. However, it was investigation of its time and
:04:16. > :04:20.policing has developed and devolved over 30 years. I think that if you
:04:21. > :04:28.were to look at any police investigation 30 years ago, you
:04:28. > :04:34.would find flaws in it. I do accept, as my chief officer has said, that
:04:34. > :04:41.the family were not treated as well as they should have been. We had no
:04:41. > :04:51.support as a family. Do you believe that the system failed he? Failed
:04:51. > :04:53.
:04:53. > :04:59.you and your family? Yes, they failed my two-year-old child.
:04:59. > :05:03.If they had listened to last them as far as I'm concerned, I may not
:05:03. > :05:08.have to be doing this interview now. My daughter could have been found.
:05:08. > :05:14.In the case of a missing child, what happens in the hours and days
:05:14. > :05:18.after a disappearance is crucial. think that how police responded the
:05:18. > :05:22.first few days is so important and a risk assessment at that stage to
:05:22. > :05:27.work out why the child has gone missing, where they may be, what
:05:27. > :05:31.risks they are facing - is this an abduction? It is so important in
:05:31. > :05:36.those first few hours and first few days that everything is done to
:05:36. > :05:40.find the missing child. It is estimated that around 140,000
:05:40. > :05:45.missing children go missing each year in the UK and 99% of all
:05:45. > :05:51.reported missing cases are solved within one year. This is the
:05:51. > :05:54.central focus of all the information comes into. Last year,
:05:54. > :05:59.the Royal Military Police decided to reopen the investigation into
:05:59. > :06:03.Katrice Lee's disappearance. A dedicated team are reviewing case
:06:03. > :06:06.files, interviews and the new lines of inquiry. Eight progression
:06:06. > :06:10.photos had been commissioned of how she would have looked at key times
:06:10. > :06:16.in her life. It is hoped that by using the latest surge techniques,
:06:16. > :06:22.the investigation can move forward. We got a profile of their DNA that
:06:22. > :06:26.we managed to obtain from one of her family members. We have
:06:26. > :06:30.equalised that Rafal to search the national DNA database in the UK and
:06:30. > :06:37.I have taken that one step further and gone to my colleagues in
:06:37. > :06:42.Interpol and said -- and had that DNA profiles admitted to the
:06:43. > :06:47.international DNA databases. They stretch from Ireland to Russia.
:06:47. > :06:52.They were taken in the July before Katrice Lee disappeared. -- Katrice
:06:52. > :06:55.Lee. She says that she will never finished the campaign it to raise
:06:55. > :06:58.awareness about the disappearance of her daughter and believes that
:06:58. > :07:02.they will one day be reunited. I have never not had hoped. If the
:07:02. > :07:07.day ever came when I had no hope that my daughter would be found, it
:07:07. > :07:12.would be the day that I stopped doing media and press releases. I
:07:12. > :07:20.have always had hoped that there would be an Indian tour our story,
:07:20. > :07:25.to Katrice Lee's story. -- and Indian to our story.
:07:25. > :07:28.In Thailand, it is difficult to gauge how serious the problem of
:07:28. > :07:32.missing children is but a agencies believe that thousands of children
:07:32. > :07:36.are traffic each year with most of them ending up as beggars or sex
:07:36. > :07:43.workers. We have travelled to Bangkok, the centre of Thailand's
:07:43. > :07:49.sex industry. We met Manee Thongchum his daughter was abducted
:07:49. > :07:53.to make his ago. Their search for her daughter, Jiji has been long
:07:53. > :07:56.and lonely. Preparing heard children for school
:07:56. > :08:00.is on the Manee Thongchum has come to dread. Each time her little
:08:00. > :08:05.girls are out of sight, the memories come back of the awful
:08:05. > :08:08.moment, 2.5 years ago, but her second child Jiji disappeared.
:08:08. > :08:16.Every day after school, the nine- year-old would come to these petrol
:08:16. > :08:20.station to work alongside her mother selling flowers. It was
:08:21. > :08:25.impossible for Manee Thongchum to keep an eye on Jiji all of the time.
:08:25. > :08:34.TRANSLATION: I went into the back of the car to feed the baby while
:08:34. > :08:40.Jiji was selling flowers with her older sister. When I came back, she
:08:41. > :08:46.had disappeared. We look for her everywhere but all we found was one
:08:46. > :08:52.of her flip-flops on the footpath. CCTV footage shows a Jiji looking
:08:52. > :08:56.for customers and then apparently distracted, walking out of the shot.
:08:56. > :09:02.Her family had travelled all over Thailand looking for her and on one
:09:02. > :09:06.occasion they came here where they received false information that she
:09:06. > :09:10.had been found. This sleazy tourist town is one of the main
:09:10. > :09:15.destinations for trafficked children in South East Asia. There
:09:15. > :09:23.are hundreds of children working in streets and bars here. As beggars
:09:23. > :09:27.and as child prostitutes. This woman spends her time searching for
:09:27. > :09:32.exploited children. Many are from neighbouring Cambodia and are not
:09:32. > :09:36.abducted but sold to traffickers by family members. Paedophiles come to
:09:36. > :09:41.party here. Why is this going on? The children that they are using
:09:41. > :09:44.did not have papers. The children that they are using cannot be
:09:44. > :09:48.tracked. So what we have here is that we are looking for victims but
:09:48. > :09:53.we do not know who they are. Thai children who were rescued and
:09:53. > :09:57.cannot return home gate put into shelters like this one. Cambodians
:09:57. > :10:04.are less fortunate and a sense back to the border where they may well
:10:04. > :10:10.be abused and traffic again. Those responsible, if they can be found,
:10:10. > :10:15.often escape prosecution. TRANSLATION: In Thailand, we have
:10:15. > :10:18.laws regarding human trafficking which look very good on paper but
:10:18. > :10:23.the people who have to enforce it has sometimes do not understand the
:10:23. > :10:30.entire process and because it is so complicated and involves a so many
:10:30. > :10:34.different agencies, it is easy for them not to pursue it. The Mirror
:10:34. > :10:40.Foundation tries to keep records of Thailand's missing children. It is
:10:40. > :10:45.a small operation, funded by donations. They have just five
:10:45. > :10:49.permit staff and received several desperate phone calls every day.
:10:49. > :10:52.TRANSLATION: The police know how many cars go missing each month.
:10:52. > :10:56.They know what type of cars and what had been done with the stolen
:10:56. > :11:00.cars. But for missing children, they have no answer. They cannot
:11:00. > :11:07.even tell us how many children are missing, how many have been rescued,
:11:07. > :11:10.and what has happened to were abducted children. Jiji's family
:11:10. > :11:15.have had to search on their own with money given by family and
:11:15. > :11:20.friends. TRANSLATION: Everything has
:11:20. > :11:25.completely changed. We used to go everywhere as a family. The songs
:11:25. > :11:29.which we listened to, the food which we listened -- used to eat.
:11:29. > :11:34.All the things we used do together, we have stopped. For a long time,
:11:34. > :11:38.it was too painful for Jiji's Perez to return to the petrol station
:11:38. > :11:48.from which she was taken. They now work there again, hoping that
:11:48. > :11:48.
:11:48. > :11:51.whoever took their little girl made The war on drugs in Mexico hits the
:11:51. > :11:55.headlines on a daily basis but little is known about the thousands
:11:55. > :11:59.of children who go missing two drug gains every year. The government
:11:59. > :12:03.there has set up a new unit dedicated to finding missing people
:12:03. > :12:08.but the problem of child abduction by drug cartels is good -- is
:12:08. > :12:13.growing. Many are forced to work for gains in the opium and narrow
:12:13. > :12:17.one of fields. Some are groomed to be killers. Will grudge travelled
:12:17. > :12:27.to Mexico to speak to one family about their missing son. This is
:12:27. > :12:31.
:12:31. > :12:35.From the outside they look like a normal family, but the reality is
:12:35. > :12:42.that they are in anguish. Before every meal, they prayed for the
:12:42. > :12:52.same thing, the return of a teenage son who disappear to last year.
:12:52. > :12:56.
:12:56. > :13:01.This day was particularly poignant. TRANSLATION: You do not know how
:13:01. > :13:08.much I miss my son. Yet in some way, I am grateful to God that this
:13:08. > :13:12.happened, because this has brought us closer to God. The day after he
:13:12. > :13:16.disappeared, his father received a call telling him to pay a ransom of
:13:16. > :13:20.tens of thousands of dollars. He negotiated the price down to
:13:20. > :13:26.something he could afford, but the group took the money and never
:13:26. > :13:29.return the boy. TRANSLATION: I am pretty sure that he is working for
:13:29. > :13:34.organised crime against his will. He had plans to continue his
:13:34. > :13:38.studies. He wanted to be an orthodontist. He never threatened
:13:38. > :13:45.to leave all say, I'm going to disappear from home and leave my
:13:45. > :13:49.parents and brother. The authorities asked that, but no.
:13:49. > :13:56.Should he make it home, his bedroom will be waiting for him as he left
:13:56. > :13:59.it. His parents' fears are growing by the day. Meanwhile, at the
:13:59. > :14:05.Mexican Association of stolen and disappear children in Mexico City,
:14:05. > :14:09.there is a steady stream of families coming through the door.
:14:09. > :14:16.One wall at the association is plastered with the missing posters
:14:16. > :14:21.of some of the almost 1,300 cases they had seen since 2009. While the
:14:21. > :14:25.drug cartels often target adolescents do work for them, they
:14:25. > :14:29.also got a babies and toddlers to sell them on all for ransom. She
:14:29. > :14:33.founded the organisation 20 years ago when her own granddaughter was
:14:33. > :14:40.snatched by a woman posing as a nanny. Luckily, they manage to
:14:40. > :14:44.track her down, but many others are not so fortunate. TRANSLATION: It
:14:44. > :14:48.is indescribable to lose a child. It is a pain like they have torn
:14:48. > :14:52.your heart out. It is like your life does not have any meaning any
:14:52. > :14:58.more. The West pain a human being can experience is the loss of a
:14:58. > :15:05.child. For all the therapy you may have, the pain is lacerating. There
:15:05. > :15:08.are not words to describe it. the face of what they see as the
:15:09. > :15:12.indifference, sometimes even the involvement of the authorities in
:15:12. > :15:18.their children's disappearances, one group of mothers has decided to
:15:18. > :15:22.take matters into their own hands. Outside the Attorney General's
:15:22. > :15:25.offers, a handful of parents staged a Honda's -- a hunger strike to
:15:26. > :15:29.demand an audience with the President. The Interior Ministry
:15:29. > :15:34.says it is taking the problem seriously and has announced the
:15:34. > :15:38.creation of a new unit to find missing persons and the national
:15:38. > :15:44.database of human remains. But she says it is not just the
:15:44. > :15:49.government's responsibility to tackle the problem. TRANSLATION:
:15:49. > :15:52.This is everyone's worked as we are human beings. The children are not
:15:52. > :15:56.just stolen children but the children of all abuzz, and we see
:15:56. > :16:04.something happening against a chart and a young person, we must report
:16:04. > :16:10.it because we are all involved and can all be affected by this. At his
:16:11. > :16:16.home, she is getting through her first Mother's Day meal without him.
:16:16. > :16:21.Despite the time, she that -- has not lost hope for having him back
:16:22. > :16:25.before next year's celebration. But she has little hope that it will be
:16:25. > :16:30.the authorities that will bring him back.
:16:30. > :16:31.All the research took place in the world's newsroom, the first
:16:32. > :16:36.international conference for missing children and adults took
:16:36. > :16:42.place last week at the University of Portsmouth and the UK, and one
:16:42. > :16:47.of the event's organisers joins me now. Good of you to join us. Nice
:16:47. > :16:54.to see you. Tell us what the point of the conference was for you and
:16:54. > :16:57.why you felt it necessary to hold it. It was aimed to bring people
:16:57. > :17:02.together from all types of professions, anyone who is dealing
:17:02. > :17:06.with a missing person, so we did not had just an academic conference,
:17:06. > :17:10.we thought why not combine that with a policing conference, and
:17:10. > :17:15.that grew into something much bigger than we anticipated, because
:17:15. > :17:22.the response from the academic world was overwhelming. We have
:17:22. > :17:26.over 30 academic presenters, on a wide variety of topics, the
:17:26. > :17:30.research, the most up-to-date research in all elements relevant
:17:30. > :17:35.to missing people. What are you hoping that the conference would
:17:35. > :17:43.have achieved? What we would like to achieve by the conference is to
:17:43. > :17:49.bring people together, people from across a variety of professions,
:17:49. > :17:54.and to be able to talk to, understand each other's ideas,
:17:54. > :17:58.culture clashes, to share knowledge and to highlight gaps in what we
:17:58. > :18:03.know, what we don't know, what we need to know, and take it from
:18:03. > :18:08.there. We may influence policy, we may understand that more research
:18:09. > :18:13.needs to be done in certain areas. There are certain patterns of
:18:13. > :18:17.behaviour, if you understand a particular type of characteristic
:18:17. > :18:22.involved in a particular type of offender, for example, they knew no
:18:22. > :18:27.way to target your resources as a policing operation, or even in
:18:27. > :18:31.terms of child abduction, there is a study that has been done on
:18:31. > :18:35.child-stranger abduction. How do we teach parents to teach their
:18:35. > :18:40.children, who do they need to avoid? We know from the research
:18:40. > :18:44.that it is not a complete stranger in most cases. Not somebody that
:18:44. > :18:50.comes out of the bushes. It is somebody that they are familiar
:18:50. > :18:54.with. The idea of the stranger danger is not true. In that sense,
:18:54. > :18:59.we can influence the discussion and influence the policy publicly as
:18:59. > :19:04.well. It is clearly very difficult to gauge the true extent of the
:19:04. > :19:08.problem. But from what you understand, how serious is it?
:19:08. > :19:13.is an extremely important issue to know, because children are
:19:14. > :19:18.vulnerable. Because they are not know -- not where they are supposed
:19:18. > :19:23.to be, they are probably coming to harm. Do you know how widespread
:19:23. > :19:29.the problem is? It is difficult to tell. There is a variation in the
:19:29. > :19:34.way that different countries record or even report the problem. Between
:19:34. > :19:39.countries, in some countries, the value of a child is not consider it
:19:39. > :19:44.as high as we may consider them. Simply because they are not earning
:19:44. > :19:50.money. So they are not a valued member of society, as such. If
:19:50. > :19:55.anything happens to them, if they run away, people may not take
:19:55. > :20:02.notice. Whereas for Russ, they will. In some societies, they are costing
:20:02. > :20:07.the parents and that is a burden to them. Yes, in terms of society,
:20:07. > :20:13.every parent, we would assume that parents across the world kept for
:20:13. > :20:20.their children, but in terms of society, the police... they may not
:20:20. > :20:25.spend the time and effort to search for them. Explain to us what a
:20:25. > :20:31.missing child can do to the family. It is heartbreaking. Not even a
:20:31. > :20:36.child, any one that you love, you do not know where they are, they go
:20:36. > :20:42.for a minute, you have that fear, they go for an hour, think of a day,
:20:42. > :20:51.a week, a month. Their life stops. They cannot move on. They have no
:20:51. > :20:57.ending. The what if, it is not need telling, it just eats away. We know
:20:57. > :21:00.that they struggle to cope. We know they have to move on to some extent
:21:00. > :21:05.because of other children, that they possibly have to raise, but
:21:05. > :21:08.they can't move on and they are stuck at that particular moment,
:21:08. > :21:15.where that particular child went missing and they cannot let it go.