About 200 children who were placed in hotels controlled by the Home Office and sought asylum, according to a British minister, have reportedly gone missing.
The admission follows an investigation in which a whistle-blower from a Home Office hotel said that children were being abducted off the street and forced into cars.
The missing children include one female and at least 13 children under the age of 16, Home Office minister Simon Murray stated at the House of Lords on Monday January 23.
“The Home Office have no power to detain unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in these hotels and we do know that some of them go missing. Many of them that go missing are subsequently traced,” Murray said.
In addition, he noted that 176 out of 200 missing youngsters were of Albanian descent.
Police had previously alerted the Home Office to the possibility that criminal networks would target minors who had entered the country unaccompanied.
The Home Office reportedly started hosting asylum seekers at hotels in Brighton and Hove in July 2021, according to the Sussex police force.
During that time, 137 children were reported missing. Sixty have been found and 76 are under investigation.
Local councils and the Home Office have shifted blame, each claiming that the other is ultimately responsible for the safety of the children.
As Green Party MP Caroline Lucas criticized the in-power Conservatives in Parliament on Monday, the Labour Party demanded an immediate investigation.
“This is horrific,” she said. “Vulnerable children are being dumped by the Home Office.”
Rights groups condemned the government, while the Adolescent and Children’s Trust (TACT), a fostering charity, claimed that the Home Office disregarded its requests to place the kids in foster homes.
Author-Roberta Appiah
