In North Rhine-Westphalia, more than 30,000 people are reported missing every year. Two-thirds of them reappear within three days. But some remain missing.
Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - In North Rhine-Westphalia, 1327 people were missing for more than six weeks at the beginning of December. They were considered long-term missing, as the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) NRW in Düsseldorf explained when asked by dpa. Of the long-term missing, 67 percent were boys or men and 33 percent were girls or women. The proportion of minors among the long-term missing was 45 percent.
Among the long-term missing are around 1,000 people who have been missing for well over six weeks - in some cases since the beginning of statistical recording in the 1960s. "These can be people who have started a new life abroad and may have died there in the meantime," said an LKA spokesman.
Overall, however, many more people disappear within a year in North Rhine-Westphalia. By December 1 this year, 30,450 people had already been reported missing. In the same period, 29,822 searches for missing persons were deleted.
In all of 2021, 30,375 people were missing for at least four hours. In the meantime, 30,228 cases of their stay have been clarified.
The whereabouts of almost 20,000 missing persons were clarified within three days. Another 6110 took up to a week. 1,540 cases went missing for up to two weeks and a good 1,000 people for up to a month.
730 reappeared after three months at the latest, almost 220 remained missing for up to six months. 160 were located within a year and almost 60 of those missing last year took longer than a year.
While most of the long-term missing are male, women and girls make up the majority of missing persons at 54 percent.
Five out of six of the total missing persons cases involved minors. Disproportionately often they disappear from children's homes or youth welfare facilities. This year, around two-thirds of the missing people turned up again within three days.
