Nearly 70 Maltese are among the 359 people who are still unaccounted for after being re-ported missing over the past decade.

Since 2010, a total of 5,892 reports of missing persons have been filed, according to police statistics.

The vast majority have been accounted for.

The figures show that 5,533 of the missing persons were eventually ‘found’. Of the people who are still missing, 290 are foreign while 69 are Maltese nationals.

Many of the missing are undocumented migrants, some with refugee status, who have left the island, a police spokeswoman explained. While the vast majority of missing person reports concerned women, most of who eventually showed up, the still missing are mainly male – 272 – while 87 are female.

373 missing person’s reports this year so far

More than half of those still considered missing – 181 – are minors under the age of 18. Twenty of them are over the age of 60.

In the case of undocumented migrants, unless the Maltese police receive confirmation from other law enforcement agencies to say that the missing person is in good health and residing in that country, they remain listed as missing, the spokeswoman said.

This year up to July there have been 373 missing person’s reports – and 72 of those cases are still unsolved.

Once a person is missing, she or he remains on the missing persons’ list until there is evidence to prove otherwise.

“A missing person investigation can never be termed concluded unless the police have material evidence that shows whether that missing person is in some other place or country or that he or she is dead,” the spokeswoman said.

In the latter case, the police launch a criminal investigation to assess whether the death was due to natural causes, accidental or possibly as a result of foul play.

“Files related to missing persons can only be put away when the fate of a missing person is determined in a clear and coherent manner,” she said.