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Child abductions in Spain rise sharply over the last decade
Official figures show a 73% increase, with 2023 recording the highest number of cases
Child abductions in Spain have risen by around 73% over the last 10 years, according to the annual missing persons report produced by the National Centre for Missing Persons at the Ministry of the Interior. The figures show a clear upward trend since 2016, with 2023 marking the highest number on record at 477 cases.Last year, 453 cases were recorded, which was 10 more than in 2024. In many of these situations, the initial complaint is later classified as child abduction, which helps explain why the criminal complaints figure is lower at 69. Most of these cases involve one parent taking a child out of Spain without the consent of the other.
The report says there are two main ways to try to locate these minors, through the criminal route or the civil route. The criminal process can be complicated if the destination country does not treat the act as a crime, which can make it harder to issue an arrest warrant. The civil route can be used under the Hague Convention on the Return of Children, which is signed by more than 100 countries.
The wider missing persons figures also show how heavily the issue affects younger people. In 2025, there were 25,086 missing persons reports in Spain, which was a 5% fall compared with the previous year. Even so, minors aged between 13 and 17 made up 59.1% of all cases, meaning nearly six in 10 reports involved teenagers. People over 65 accounted for 4.7% of the total.
The report also highlights regional differences. Madrid recorded the highest proportion of missing persons reports involving minors, with 70.4% of all complaints registered in the region that year.
A further worrying area is the disappearance of children from foster care centres. These cases also rose in 2025, reaching 2,440. The report says the profile of people who disappear more than once is often linked to minors who leave protection centres in areas with lower average income.
Image: Ron Lach/Pexels
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