Forty children reported missing from UK asylum hotels still not found

Forty children who went missing from hotels housing asylum seekers in the UK have still not been found, according to a parliamentary report.

Ministers are facing calls from MPs and peers to explain what they are doing to locate the group, two of whom are believed to still be under 18. The figure emerged in a report on Thursday by the joint committee on human rights on how the social care system is failing young adults.

In 2023, it emerged that more than 440 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children had gone missing from Home Office hotels, some of whom were reported to be as young as 12. The cross-party committee has been told by a witness that 40 of the cohort of missing children have still not been found.

Helen Waite, a director of children’s social care at the Department for Education, told the committee in June that 472 children had gone missing in total and 432 had since been located.

“Guidance was issued to police from the Home Office, to be shared with local networks, to ensure that we continue to look for those children and that we can surface whether they have been found, and information can be updated to provide more reassurance,” she said.

The high court ruled in 2023 that the Home Office’s routine use of hotels to house lone child asylum seekers was unlawful. At the time, the Conservative government said: “Due to the unsustainable rise in illegal Channel crossings, the government has had no option but to accommodate young people in hotels on a temporary basis while placements with local authorities are urgently found.”

Angela Eagle, in a letter to the committee last year when she was the border security and asylum minister, said some of those found were “located in exploitative situations and may have been trafficked or victims of other forms of exploitation”.

The committee, which published a wider report on children’s social care on Thursday, said: “We welcome the fact that the majority of missing children have now been found. However, we continue to be extremely concerned about the fact that some children who went missing from asylum hotels in previous years remain missing.”

The committee called on the Home Office to “make clear what specific action is being taken to locate these children, to investigate the causes for them going missing, and to avoid unaccompanied asylum-seeking children going missing in the future”.

It asked the Home Office to provide an update to the committee every three months “with details of efforts to locate the children who remain missing”.

Patricia Durr, the chief executive of Every Child Protected Against Trafficking UK, said: “The government cannot allow the disappearance [of children] to fade from public scrutiny. It is a significant child protection failure and we strongly support the committee’s call for regular public reporting and greater transparency about what is being done to find those who remain missing, understand why so many children disappeared, and ensure this can never happen again.”

In a further development, a watchdog on Thursday gave the UK government its lowest ranking for failing to uphold asylum seekers’ rights in line with UN recommendations.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission said an assessment found “gaps in social security provisions” and “failures to provide protection from poverty and destitution” in how new arrivals were treated.

Officials criticised the government’s decision to end a programme designed to help refugees with CV writing and interview skills after just two years. The government also revoked its legal duty to support asylum seekers at risk of destitution this year, the watchdog said.

Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson, the EHRC chair, said: “Everyone in the UK is covered by its human rights framework, regardless of their citizenship or immigration status. But our human rights only work when they protect each and every one of us, including migrants and asylum seekers. When the government fail to protect the rights of one group, it puts everyone’s rights at risk.”

This month it was announced that a further 13 hotels housing asylum seekers had closed, after Labour’s pledge to stop using asylum hotels completely by the next election.

Ministers are increasing their use of more “basic” sites including former military barracks, and the most recent closures are expected to save taxpayers £51m and bring the total number of asylum hotels below 160, down from a peak of about 400 under the Conservatives.

A government spokesperson said: “Police forces are responsible for investigating missing children cases and we continue to review our records, share relevant information with them and work closely with local authorities and safeguarding partners to support those investigations.”