Abena is a young girl who was forced to leave Eritrea when confronted with an impossible choice as she approached her 14^th birthday: being forcibly married to a 35 year man or enrol in the military. She decided to escape with her brother and embarked on a dreadful journey to Europe, but they ended up being separated and Abena arrived alone to Italy.

Qiro is a 15-year-old, Iraqi Kurdish boy who was forced to flee his country when the bombing in his town intensified rapidly. He arrived at the shores of Greece by himself after being separated from his parents in Turkey.

Abena and Qiro have gone missing since arriving in Europe and are thought to be at risk of trafficking and exploitation.

Today is EU Antitrafficking day. During the week leading up to it, NGOs, migration authorities, police forces and local authorities in six EU countries (Greece, Italy, France, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Sweden) have been working together to solve the disappearances of Abena and Qiro. They have made real time judgement calls on how to cooperate with partners within and outside of the country, drawing on their knowledge and expertise to respond appropriately to reports of them going missing.

Abena and Quiro are fictitious, but their situation is similar to thousands of boys and girls at risk of starvation, homelessness and being forced into criminal networks in Europe. With limited safe and legal ways to move across countries, towards and within Europe, unaccompanied children like Abena and Quiro are vulnerable to going missing and being exploited.

These ongoing simulations are happening in the framework of the AMINA programme, coordinated by Missing Children Europe and with the support of the H&M Foundation. The project is a cross-border collaboration that aims to improve the protection of unaccompanied and separated children in Europe by addressing existing challenges and gaps at the operational, legal and political levels.

Thanks to this project, Missing Children Europe and its partners will be able to identify the gaps in the knowledge and practice of frontline agencies and organisations in Europe in their coordinated response to cases of missing unaccompanied and separated children. The exercise will establish relationships that will lead to enhanced knowledge sharing across borders, and to develop practical toolkits that frontline professionals across Europe can use to ensure children are protected from traffickers and people who mean them harm. The toolkit will include checklists, suggested procedures, modules for cooperation, and a contact guide to facilitate co-operation between services.