Fifty-five children have been reported missing this year. Fifty-two of them have been found, while three are still missing. Marina Popovici, the head of the Minors and Vices Division of the Interior Ministry, has told Info-Prim Neo that during six months the police had been informed about the disappearance of 141 children. Most of the children were found within three days. So, there were opened only 55 cases of missing persons, the quoted source said. The missing include three girls - from Sangerei and Cantemir districts and from Chisinau, Ciocana quarter. One of them, aged 7, disappeared in the summer of 2007. She went missing in the middle of the day in her native village located on the bank of the Prut River. She was playing with older children that did not want to take her to the river to swim. The police presume she went after them and got drowned. The Interior Ministry appealed to the Romanian and Ukrainian police for help, but the body of the child was not found. The other two girls are aged 11 and 16. The police are investigating several versions. No inquiry details are available. According to Marina Popovici, the girls aged between 11 and 16 are most often reported missing. Most of the disappearing children are chased out of the home. After quarrelling with the parents, the children often go to the relatives that live in other settlements or to Chisinau, start begging or remain at a friend’s home without informing the adults. There are cases when one of the parents takes the child without the consent of the other parent. Under the Family Code, both of the parents have equal rights in educating the child. If one of the parents does not allow the other parent to see the child, the latter can appeal to the guardianship and tutelage authority and ask for a timetable of meetings, Marina Popovici said. No child was reported taken illegally out of the country by one of the parents this year. One child was found dead. This was a minor suffering from some form of psychiatric disorder and fell into a sewage pit. No child disappeared from residential institutions. Last year, two boys left the summer camp in Ungheni and went home on foot because they did not like the camp. In 2007, the police was informed about 246 cases of child disappearance. There were drawn up 144 missing reports. A number of 575 minors were reported missing in 2002, 539 in 2004, 281 in 2006. A large number of children are found in the street. These are not reported missing. As many as 625 children have been placed in the Temporary Accommodation Center of the Interior Ministry in the first half of this year. This is by 100 children more over the same period last year. Most of them are fugitives from residential institutions or from socially vulnerable families. As a rule, the children are returned to the place from where they escaped. When it is ascertained that the minor cannot remain in the family, the court is asked to decide on their placement under tutelage. In 85 cases this year, the parents were deprived of parental rights.