Police are searching for 13 unaccompanied migrant children who went missing after leaving a reception center in the northwestern province of Edirne, the Family and Social Services Ministry said.
A group of 14 children left a residential complex on Oct 11 after being granted permission to go shopping, but only one has since returned, the ministry said in a statement clarifying the issue following earlier media reports.
"The children mentioned in the reports are not children under state protection, but unaccompanied foreign children identified as part of irregular migration," the statement said.
The ministry added that it was closely monitoring the search. It did not provide further details about the children's ages, nationalities or circumstances of their disappearance.
Ukrainian children displaced by war allegedly abused in Turkey
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