Two vulnerable children still missing 10 months after vanishing without a trace

The boys, 16-year-old Da Chu Luong and 12-year-old Tu Huy Bui, were last seen leaving Bilston Library on November 29 last year.

The pair, who are both Vietnamese nationals, were handed over to the council after a police raid on a factory.

Missing appeals have been put out in a bid to locate the boys – but no trace has been found.

A third child, a 17-year-old girl, was with them when they were picked up and went missing with them.

She was found at a nail bar in Leamington Spa on January 20 and returned to council foster carers in the city.

It comes as new data from 351 councils across the UK found that 152 Vietnamese children in care had permanently disappeared since 2015.

Wolverhampton council spokesman Paul Brown said: “Though the majority of young people who are taken into care settle well into their placements, occasionally they do abscond.

“In these instances, the council and its partners work hard to locate them and return them to care as soon as possible. We will also find out why they absconded and, depending on the reason, find them an alternative placement.

“We have well established procedures which we employ as soon as we become aware that a child is missing. We notify police immediately, who then check known addresses and locations which the child may frequent.

“The council will also alert other local authorities to the missing individual.

“The issue of trafficked children absconding from care is a problem nationally, and they are particularly hard to trace. They often go back into their own communities or are picked up again by traffickers.

“In this instance, one of the three young people who absconded from care last November was located and returned to her host family.”

Mr Brown said that, despite the efforts of the council and partners the other two young people are at large.

It is thought they may have joined the Vietnamese community in Birmingham.