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Website to find missing black people launched

A website has been launched to help find missing black people who are disappearing in disproportionate numbers across England and Wales.

MissingPersons

A website has been launched to help find missing black people who are disappearing in disproportionate numbers across England and Wales.

Tech entrepreneur Dominic Norton from Newham, east London, decided to start this initiative after identifying with wider concerns around the lack of regard for these disappearances from parts of the media and authorities.

The 26-year-old, who previously worked for companies including Microsoft, Citibank and Mercedes, said his core objective is to affect positive change.

Speaking to The Independent, he said: “My focus is to try and help my community and it’s interesting how the website has taken off.

Something that certain demographics don’t understand is that there’s a nuance to communities and when you look at the Missing People’s website, their communications, creatives, graphics, everything, it doesn’t resonate with black communities.

“They have some really good resources on there but if you ask most people from black communities what they’d do if someone went missing, they wouldn’t know.

He added: “The difficulty with Britain is this level of nuance is not popular in the mainstream but if you want to help people, you need that.

The website, missingblackpeople.com, features a listings page of missing people which is regularly updated by Mr Norton, as well as resources about support available to those whose loved ones have disappeared.

The Londoner does not receive funding for this endeavour but for sustainability would need to find a business model that “does justice to the cause”.

He also launched a petition calling for a public inquiry into the causes surrounding missing black people which has over 10,000 signatures.

Black people are four times more likely to be reported as missing in England and Wales.

This groups accounts for 14 per cent of missing people in England and Wales between 2019 and 2020, over four times (3 per cent) their relative population, according to data from the National Crime Agency.

Following the recent disappearances of young Londoners Richard Okorogheye and Blessing Olusegu, who were both found dead shortly after being flagged to the police as missing, campaigners told The Independent that the government must do more to address the racial disparity in missing people.

Police handling of the disappearance of Mr Okorogheye is being investigated by a watchdog following complaints by his mother Joel Evidence that officers didn’t take his case seriously and treated her as though she was a “nuisance”.

Ms Evidence, a nurse, 39, has also suggested that if her son were white, the police would have responded more favourably.

This aricle was originally published in the Independent Newpaper.

Posted: May 24, 2021