The McCann Apartment
Praia-Da-Luz-Portugal-May-2007. The Bridge MAG. Image

The ongoing saga surrounding the disappearance of three-year-old British child Madeleine McCann, which first rocked the world news five years ago, has recently taken another new twist after the Portuguese authorities reopened the McCann case, citing new evidence.

This has prompted us at The Bridge Magazine to use our latest editorial to raise more awareness of such cases, and to provide parents, teachers and child welfare workers from around the world with crucial information and advice to help to reduce or deter such crimes and prevent other children from being abducted in the future.

The world’s media has always been prompt in splashing sensationalist headlines and broadcasting special crime watch programmes related to issues of missing children.

However, it looks as though this approach has not necessarily led to dramatic action or improvement in terms of prevention of such crimes.

Regular and useful factual information on the circumstances that tend to preclude child abductions can prove vital in helping to significantly reduce their frequency.

From South Africa to Portugal, from France to America and Canada, or the UK to China, a missing child is any parent’s ultimate nightmare.

The world statistics related to missing children are truly beyond belief. According to the Home Office of England and Wales’ Crime Statistics, ‘A child disappears in the UK every three minutes’, whereas in the United States of America, the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children recently reported that ‘a child goes missing every 40 seconds; thus 2,000 per day, or roughly 800,000 children, are missing every year in America’.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic:

‘A child goes missing every six hours in South Africa’, according to recent figures released by the South African Police Service Missing Persons Bureau.

In China, official statistics are hard to come by. However, according to the US State Department, up to 20,000 children in China are abducted each year.

But the questions that still burn on the lips are: What are the reasons behind their disappearances? And what useful actions can be taken to protect children and prevent them from being abducted? …

In China…

 According to UNICEF…

A missing child is any parent’s ultimate nightmare. The Bridge MAG. image

One of the key factors in child trafficking is the sexual exploitation of minors.

According to a recent report from the FBI and the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)…

Follow the links below to read more:

1)

https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/rachel-tcheungna/true-crimes-and-prevention-global-news-that-never-fades-the-bridge-magazine-book-from-britains-news-to-world-exclusives/paperback/product-vnr49d.html?page=1&pageSize=4

2)

https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/rachel-tcheungna/global-news-that-never-fades-from-britains-news-to-world-exclusives/paperback/product-ennmdm.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Rachel Tcheungna, Author, Writer of 

The Bridge Books and 

The Bridge Magazine Editor.