Dozens of children who went missing from asylum hotels still unaccounted for years later
The committee said 40 people who went missing as children were still unlocated and urged the Home Office to explain how it will find them.
- The Joint Committee on Human Rights reported Thursday that 40 people who disappeared as children from UK asylum hotels remain unlocated. Parliamentarians demanded the Government outline specific tracing actions and provide quarterly updates on these unresolved cases.
- Following revelations that over 400 children had gone missing, the High Court ruled in 2023 that the Home Office's routine practice of placing lone child asylum seekers in hotels was unlawful. Home Office-operated accommodation for unaccompanied children subsequently closed in January 2024.
- In correspondence to the committee last year, Dame Angela Eagle noted that some traced children were "located in exploitative situations and may have been trafficked or victims of other forms of exploitation." This vulnerability underscores risks facing the 40 still missing.
- England's Children's Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza expressed "serious concern" regarding the missing youngsters, calling their disappearance an "unacceptable failure." She urged the Government to set out action to locate those still missing and prevent future cases.
- Earlier this month, Ministers announced closure of 13 additional asylum hotels while expanding "basic" locations like military barracks to end hotel use entirely. These closures are expected to save taxpayers £51 million, reducing total sites below 160.
5 Articles
5 Articles
Forty people still lost after Home Office lost track of children staying at asylum hotels
Forty people who went missing as children from asylum seeker hotels in the UK have still not been found, prompting parliamentarians to call on the Government to set out what it is doing to locate them.
One in ten children who went missing from asylum hotels still not found
One in 10 children who went missing from asylum hotels has yet to be found, a new report has revealed. It emerged in 2023 that 400 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children went missing from Home Office hotels, with some reported to be as young as 12. Forty of those who went missing still have not been found, and while most are now adults, two of them are still children.The Joint Committee on Human Rights, which authored the report, has raised conce…
The Independent
The Independent (US)Forty children who went missing from UK asylum hotels still not found
Dozens of people who went missing as children have still not been located
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