13-year-old missing from Vendas Novas located in India

A bizarre case of 13-year-old disappearing from Vendas Novas in Portugal- and subsequently being found in India, close to the border with Pakistan – hints at an ‘alternative system’ potentially operating among foreigners from the Asian sub-continent, resident in Portugal.

How did Anaya Raj manage to get so far without a passport? How did she travel? With whom?

This is all now being investigated by PJ police in a story that, as the saying goes in Portugal, “seems badly told”.

The apparent details are that schoolgirl Anaya was “last seen”, close to her house in Vendas Novas at 6pm on April 27.

Even this is open to question, as Anaya did not attend school that day, and was not seen by any family members after the early morning.

The girl’s elder sister told Correio da Manhã in an interview on April 30 that she traced her sister’s phone to a location in Portugal, but that after that, the phone must have been switched off, as it became untraceable.

Anaya’s parents also apparently recorded an appeal to their daughter, for her to return home, posted over social media.

Nova Gente then reported, on May 1, that Anaya had reportedly sent her family a message, saying “the responsibility is mine, there is no cause for you to be concerned, nor to complain to police”.

Again, if that is the kind of language used by the 13-year-old, PJ inspectors will no doubt be checking this out as part of their investigations.

Fast forward to today, and the news, via noticiasaominuto, that Anaya “was located in India”, in the city of Amritsar, in the Punjab, and that her “profoundly ashamed” father has already picked her up and brought her home to Vendas Novas.

The PJ meantime, which has been ‘on this case’ since the parents reported their daughter missing in April, are now “analysing various perspectives”, including whether this was a situation of an arranged marriage, or of people trafficking.

The other question concerns how Anaya managed to travel such a distance without a passport – particularly if she travelled by plane.

Previous reports have referred to an older boyfriend, who was planning to ‘join her’ at a later date; and a possible ‘whip round’ by schoolmates to help Anaya purchase a plane ticket. But nothing appears to have been fully corroborated.

Jornal de Notícias has reported, however, that this is not the first time Anaya has ‘run away from home’. She previously made it to Pegões, in Montijo, to be with the boyfriend, whom she met on a Portuguese course for immigrants.

The family has been living in Portugal for the last six years, and certainly Anaya and her elder sister are fluent in Portuguese.

Noticiasaominuto today says Anaya is back with her family, and being ‘kept away from contact with her boyfriend’ while authorities continue with the investigation of exactly what happened over the ‘missing weeks’, and how a 13-year-old managed to travel across the world, and through certainly two border controls, without a passport.

Source: noticiasaominuto/ Jornal de Notícias/ Nova Gente/ Correio da Manhã