More than a thousand foreign children went missing in Italy last year, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said on Wednesday.
Maroni said that of the 1,008 minors who have disappeared, 740 are known to have run away from care centres and shelters while 82 are believed to have fallen into the hands of human traffickers.
At least 322 Italian children went missing in 2008,he said.
Over the period 1974 to 2008, officials have a record of 10,267 missing children, including 1,810 Italians.
Referring to an unprecedented 2,751 children who landed on Italian shores in 2008, Maroni said 2,124 were unaccompanied by relatives.
Most of the children reached the southern Italian island of Lampedusa aboard rickety vessels which ferry would-be immigrants from the African coast to Italy, said Maroni.
