The Children's Rights Alliance has said there is a "real fear" that some missing children in the care of the State could be victims of exploitation.
Fifteen separated children are reported to have gone missing last year and are still unaccounted for, according to a draft unpublished report by the Health Information and Quality Authority into care provided by the child and family agency Tusla.
The report was covered in yesterday's Business Post.
Children's Rights Alliance Chief Executive Tanya Ward said: "What we understand from Tusla is that some of these young people arrived in the country and moved on very quickly to be joined by their families.
"But some children, there is a real fear, that there is a risk of exploitation. Some of the worst forms of exploitation, sexual exploitation and prostitution."
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, she said in some cases, children who arrive in Ireland are aged between 12 and 13 and are very vulnerable and that sometimes they are sent to Europe because their parents have been involved in politics and they are afraid of reprisals.
However, she said at the other end of the scale there are young people aged 15, 16 and 17 who are coming from countries such as Afghanistan where there are "enormous amounts of destabilisation" because of the Taliban.
"And they have been living on their own for long periods of time and they arrive in the State seeking protection," Ms Ward said.
"So, Tusla has a mammoth task actually to try and respond to the real diversity of needs of these children."
Ms Ward said the preferred option would be to place children into foster care but when young people have lived on their own for several years, there needs to be a different type of solution.
She said that while she cannot comment on this particular report as she has not seen it, she knows from working directly with Tusla and people on the front line about the challenges they face.
"I think this service has operated in a special way for a number of years and I think some of the big challenges hitting Tusla in this space has been, look the overall policy needs to be looked at," she said.
Ms Ward said there is an unprecedented number of children arriving in Ireland on their own.
She said Tusla is the last safety net for children and young people and their policy, at this point in time, does not give them the reach or the scope to resolve some of the problems these young people are facing.
Ms Ward said the other side of the problem for Tusla is the accommodation crisis.
"It concerns me when I hear social workers are frantically looking for accommodation when they should be focused on developing care plans and working with young people directly," she added.
The chief executive said there needs to be a cross-Government approach as you cannot have a situation where just one agency is working in "a very siloed approach" and there must be "huge involvement of other Government partners in this area".
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Asked about reports in the Irish Examiner today about a 40% drop in admissions to the four public Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services due to staff shortages, Ms Ward said parents in these situations must be frantic worrying about the welfare of their children.
"It's a massive failure. We shouldn't be in a position where they've had to close child and adolescent beds because I know what's going to happen here," she said.
"Some families will be afraid to bring their children into A&E because there is nowhere for them to go or they are going to end up in adult psychiatric institutions which is very frightening for you, particularly if you're a young person."
