Tirana, March 20, 2019 -The National Centre for Missing Children in Albania, a joint service of CRCA/ECPAT Albania and the National Helpline for Missing Children in Albania (ALO 116-000),in collaboration with British Police, the Missing Persons Centre in Britain with support also from the BBC World Service, have restarted searches for Bleona Mata , an Albanian girl lost 9 years ago in the Village of Zapod, Kukës.
For the very first time in Albania the centre has managed to publicise a progressive image of the missing child, a rough sketch of what Mata might look like at the age of 16. The new progressive identity of Bleona was realized thanks to the cooperation with the Global Centre for Missing Children. Bleona Mata was mysteriously disappearing in the afternoon of May 22, 2010 (at the age of 6), in the mountain of Zapod village of Kukës.
Bleona’s progressive image was produced by USA experts at the Global Children’s Missing Centre (ICMEC), based on a request of the National Centre for Missing Children in Albania. Bleona Mata new image was produced using her mother’s image and her youngest brother, helped the experts in building the changing physiognomy of the young girl today at the age of 16.
Bleona Mata went missing in 2010 while grazing livestock, in the company of five other girls. Searches to find Bleona were extended across the country as well as in the bordering countries without any results. Her mother continues to look for her daughter. The National Centre for Missing Children in cooperation with British Police and the Missing Persons Centre in Britain, with support from the BBC World Service (Click Programme), will resume searches for Bleona, across UK, since her mother strongly believes that she may be living there.
Based on the official data of the National Police Authority in Albania during the last 3 years, the number of missing children in Albania has reached 365 children, out of which 353 have been returned to their families and 12 are still missing. Albania is the first non-EU member country of the European Union to establish national centre missing children since 2009. CRCA Albania is a full-fledged member of the Global Missing Children’s Network since 2010, while ALO 116 is a member of Missing Children Europe (MCE).