The Aliens and Borders Unit of the National Police is keeping an open investigation to try to locate twelve girls and one boy under the care of the Canary Islands Government who disappeared throughout 2025 in Lanzarote. Within the framework of Operation Triton, named after the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, the kings of the sea, in Greek mythology, eleven people were arrested for crimes of belonging to a criminal organization, document forgery, against family rights and duties, concealment, and child pornography.
Far from being an isolated case, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, and Fuerteventura lead the disappearances of minors in Spain, according to the annual Report on Missing Persons from the Ministry of the Interior. Throughout 2024, a total of 2,904 children and adolescents were reported missing on these three islands.
By gender, reported disappearances in the province of Las Palmas are slightly higher among boys (1,475 cases) than among girls (1,429). This trend also corresponds to what is usual among adults in the province, where more disappearance reports are registered for men (295) than for women (133).
The number of missing minors in the province is alarming. Added to this are the 863 disappearances of young people that occurred in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Or, in other words, 3,767 minors were reported missing in the Canary Islands in 2024.
Disappearances from Shelters
That year, across the country, 6,721 reports of disappearances of minors from care centers and another 3,809 of runaway minors were registered. In total, 10,530 disappearances that have been classified as voluntary by the National Corps of Missing Persons (CNDES). Added to these are three more cases of minors who fled forcibly.
Across the length and breadth of the entire country, 16,683 reports of missing children and adolescents were registered. After the Canary Islands, the autonomous communities of Madrid, Catalonia, and Andalusia complete the ranking with the most absent minors that year.
Disappearances from children's centers
The majority of reports, which also include missing adults, are usually closed between the first three days and before the week is up. These closures are typically due to the missing person being located (in 98% of cases) or, to a lesser extent (1.4%), to the deceased's death from an accidental or suicidal cause.
The highest number of cases of missing minors who still have an active police alert were recorded in 2018 and 2019. In total, 7,633 minors remain unlocated. These cases are removed from the system if their whereabouts are found in Spain or any other country within the Schengen area.
If we consider the reports filed from 2018 to 2024, Cádiz is the province with the most active reports currently, with 3,695 missing minors.
At twelve months they are classified as "absent minors"
If the missing minors are under the guardianship of the Canary Islands autonomous community and are not located after twelve months from the disappearance report, their guardianship is extinguished, and they are no longer counted as active cases but are registered as "absent minor."It can also happen that missing minors reach the age of majority without their whereabouts being found. Regardless of who is responsible for their guardianship, the police maintain an active alert, but they are also counted as absent minors
In total, 785 missing minors in the Canary Islands have had their guardianship extinguished after their whereabouts were not found twelve months after their disappearance was reported or upon reaching the age of majority. The majority of these minors lived in the province of Las Palmas, a total of 760.
The majority of missing minors are African
The majority of missing minors in Spain come from North Africa or West Africa. Among the absent minors, almost 60% of disappearances occur among children and adolescents born in Morocco, with 4,567 reports. Along these lines, absences of children from Guinea (804), Algeria (754), Mali (467), Ivory Coast (395), Senegal (126), Gambia (111), and Cameroon (73) are also high.
To a lesser extent, reports have been registered of children born in Romania (26), Albania (25), Ghana (19), Sierra Leone (19), Somalia (19), Mauritania (18), Syria (16), or Nigeria (14).