Belgium
06:32
In Belgium, a total of 759 cases of disappearances are unsolved. The missing persons unit of the federal police believes the solution to solving at least some of these cases could lie with the 250 unidentified bodies buried in cemeteries throughout Belgium.
The purpose of the unit’s Operation Cemetery therefore is to map these bodies, to try to identify them through DNA samples and link them to missing persons cases.
The spotlight was turned on the operation during International Missing Children’s Day on Tuesday, when deputy prime minister Vincent Van Quickenborne joined the missing persons unit at the cemetery in Assebroek, near Bruges, to observe the team at work.
Italian police have said that in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, on the border with Slovenia, some 75% of those that have gone missing are under age 18 compared with a national average of 50%. The region is a transit area for the "Balkan route" for migrants from the Middle East towards countries in northern Europe.