Hundreds of child have gone missing in UK; Hundreds of child asylum seekers have turn away since. The British government began to house minors in hotels due to the strain on the country’s asylum system. British Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said in Parliament on Tuesday after an inquiry into the matter was call for.
Jenrick said Tuesday that about 200 children have gone missing since July 2021. “Of the 4,600 unaccompanied children staying in hotels since July 2021, 440 have gone missing. 200 children are still missing,” he said.
According to government figures, of the 200 missing children. About 13 are under the age of 16 and one is female. Most of the disappeared, 88%, are Albanian citizens. The remaining 12% come from Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Vietnam, Pakistan and Turkey.
Jenrick blamed an increase in the number of UK-bound migrant boats in the English Channel. Leaving the government with “no choice” but to use “specialist hotels” to house minors from July 2021.
Although the use of contract hotels was intend as a temporary solution. Four were still operating as of October, with more than 200 rooms designated for child migrants. According to a report by the independent Inspector General for Borders and Immigration.
British charities and immigration rights groups have long complained about poor conditions in the country’s overburdened and underfunded asylum system.
Hundreds of child have gone missing in UK; The number of asylum applications processed in the UK has fallen in recent years. Leaving people in limbo for months and years – stuck in processing facilities or temporary hotels. Unable to work – fueling intractable disputes over Britain’s borders. It was first report in the British media on Saturday. When The Observer newspaper report that “dozens” of asylum-seeking children had been kidnap by a “gang” from a hotel run by the British Home Office in Brighton, southern England.
Since then, they have been asking for an urgent investigation into the case. The opposition Labor Party, the human rights organization Refugee Council. The local authorities are demanding immediate action.
The Home Office dismissed the reports as untrue. In a statement to AZ24 News, a Home Office spokesperson said: “The welfare of children in care is an absolute priority.
The spokesman added that “secure safeguarding procedures” were in place and “if a child goes missing. Local authorities will work closely with the authorities, including the police, to determine their immediate whereabouts”.
Government is failing’
While the UK Government has no authority to detain unaccompanied minors who are free to leave hotels. Lenrick defended the UK Home Office’s policy of keeping records and monitoring children leaving. Returning to hotels, and that staff are ready to escort children from the site. for activities and social outings.
“Many missing persons are later track down and found,” Jenrick told parliament.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, from the opposition Labor Party. Blam traffickers in her parliamentary response, saying: “Children are grab right outside the building, they disappear . they are never find. These smugglers are taking them out of the way.”
Cooper said “immediate and decisive action” was need to crack down on gangs to keep children and young people safe.
“We know from Greater Manchester Police who have warned that asylum hotels and children’s homes are targets for organized crime. And in this case, there’s a pattern here that gangs know where to get children, often probably because that’s why they’re being smuggle here in the first place,” he added. “A criminal network is involved. The government has failed to stop them at all.”
British NGO Refugee Action said on Monday that it was “appalling that children who have come to this country for protection are being put at risk. The final responsibility rests with the Home Secretary and his decision to run the asylum system is based not on compassion but on hostility,” they added.
The UK’s Refugee Council (NGO) tweet that it was “extremely concerned that separat children are being house in internal offices beyond legal conditions, exposing them to a dangerous threat, with over 200 missing”.
