In the past year, 106 children have been reported as missing from various shelters for asylum seekers in Norway. In the past four years, that tally comes up to a total of 237 minors.

"When a Norwegian child dissaperas, huge search-and-rescue operations are arranged and all the authorities are involved," Thale Skybak at Save the Children Norway told the Dagbladet newspaper on Monday.

"That is not the case when an asylum child goes missing." 

The children and teenagers in question had all travelled to Norway as unaccompanied minors. Many were living at asylum residences in wait for their interviews with the Norwegian Directorate of Immigrations (Utlendingsdirektoratet – UDI), while some were also waiting to have their biological age verified to establish whether they were in fact minors.