Police in the western Ireland county of Limerick are seeking the public’s assistance in tracing a 16-year-old Latvian girl who has been missing for one week.

Alisa Apine of Corbally, County Limerick, has not been seen since Jan. 17, according to a Jan. 25 statement from Sgt. Jim Molloy of the Garda Press Office.

She is described as 5 feet 7 inches (170 cm) tall, with black hair and blue eyes. When last seen, Apine was wearing green khaki trousers, a peach-colored top and Nike brand running shoes.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Henry Street Garda Station in Limerick by calling +353 61 212 400.

British police are distributing posters in four languages, including Latvian, as they seek information into the murder of 17-year-old Alisa Dmitrijeva, whose body was found New Year’s Day on the royal family’s Sandringham Estate northeast of London.

Police confirmed Jan. 8 that the body, which may have been in place for up to four months, is that of Dmitrijeva. The young woman, who was born in Latvia and moved with her family to Great Britain in 2009, was last seen alive in late August.

Detective Chief Inspector Jes Fry, head of the Joint Norfolk and Suffolk Major Investigation Team, said he hopes people from within Eastern European communities in King’s Lynn and Wisbech may be able to assist.

“Alisa socialised within her own ethnic community and so those people may remember seeing her in the timeframe we’re looking at, between midday on Tuesday, 30 August, 2011, and midnight on Tuesday, 6 September, 2011, or may have heard something about her disappearance and death,” Fry said in a press release from the Norfolk Constabulatory.

The posters were issued Jan. 10.

“We have access to a language line and interpreters who can help anyone calling Norfolk Constabulary,” Fry added.

Anyone with information about Dmitrijeva’s disappearance and death may contact the Joint Norfolk and Suffolk Major Investigation Team at Norfolk Constabulary on +44 01953 424242, or Crimestoppers UK at +41 800 555 111.

The number of new immigrants from Latvia settling in Ireland appears to have dropped by nearly 30 percent last year compared to 2010, suggest data compiled by government authorities.

Last year, a total of 2,195 persons from Latvia registered for Personal Public Service Numbers (PPSNs), which are used in Ireland for various transactions with the government, according to the Department of Social Protection in Dublin.

The decrease continues a general trend in the number of Latvian residents filing for PPSNs during the past several years. While PPSN registrations are not a direct marker of the number of immigrants, they generally are considered to represent trends.

Declining economic conditions in Ireland in the past two years have slowed the flow of migrants from Eastern Europe.

The number of people from Latvia who filed for PPSNs exploded in 2004 after the country joined the European Union, easing the flow of labor across borders. That year, 6,266 persons from Latvia filed for PPSNs, a fourfold increase over 2003.

In 2005, the number of PPSN registrations Latvia peaked at 9,328. Every year since then the numbers have dropped—except in 2009 when the figure increased by 5 percent over 2008.

Since 2000, according to the Department of Social Protection data, a total of 48,031 PPSNs have been issued to persons from Latvia.