According to the National Crime Agency, Black Brits make up 14% of all missing people in the UK – four times their relative population
Following the recent news of Richard Okorogheye’s disappearance and death, there has been public outcry over the families of Black and Brown communities’ concerns not being taken seriously enough. This comes after his mother stated that the police told Richard’s mother: “If you can’t find your son, how do you expect police officers to?”
Black people continue to go missing across Britain in disproportionate numbers and campaigners say the government must do more to not only take these investigations more seriously but to figure out why. Data from the National Crime Agency‘s latest study shows that 14% of all missing people in England and Wales between 2019 and 2020 were of Black ethnicity.
While these numbers may not compute straight away, take into account that Black people make up just three per cent of the total UK population: that means that that the proportion of the Black population who are going missing is four times greater than their relative population. They are deeply troubling numbers that cannot be overlooked.
Digging deeper, if we look at look London more specifically, 36 per cent of all those who went missing from the city between 2019 and 2020 were Black – again, twice their population in the area (13 per cent). The figures also show that more Black males go missing than females, while any age factors have yet to be determined.
As far back as 2016, people have been openly examining this disparity. As the South West Londoner examined back then, “Black and minority ethnic people [BAME] are more than twice as likely to go missing as white people in Wandsworth” (a local borough in the area). In other areas of London, the number of BAME individuals that went missing increased by as much as 74% during the 2000s.
Sadia Ali, the founder of the north London charity, Minority Matters, spoke to The Independent on the matter and had this to say: “No life is worth more than the other and Black and ethnic minorities parents feel that their son’s lives aren’t valued the same”.
