ATHENS, Greece (AP) Judicial authorities in Greece say an investigation has been reopened into the whereabouts of 502 children who were placed into state care more than a decade ago but are unaccounted-for since 2004.
The children, all believed to be Albanian Roma, were taken to an Athens children's home under a 1998-2002 government program aimed at countering a surge in street children, forced to beg by their families or by human traffickers.
A senior prosecutor on Monday ordered the inconclusive 2004-2005 investigation reopened.
A United Nations report published last year found that 159 children in the program had been returned to their parents or taken to other care facilities after the program ended, but the whereabouts of the remaining 502 remained unknown.
