More than 50 unaccompanied child asylum seekers have disappeared from reception centres around the UK. Yet their disappearance should alarm us all that with the safety and welfare of these vulnerable wards of the state. These numbers show a shocking pattern. Indeed, in recent years, hundreds of these unaccompanied minors have disappeared, many subsequently falling prey to such exploitation and abuses themselves.
The Home Office reported that 44 children have vanished from its centers, with 10 still missing and 34 successfully located. This comes despite records revealing that at least 213 children have gone missing from council reception centers between 2020 and Aug. 2023. All but 182 of these children were never found. This leaves 32 children still unaccounted for. Even more shocking is the fact that 132 children went missing from two hotels operated by the Home Office in Kent. Development of this troubling trend between 2021 and 2023.
Albanian children are the single largest demographic of missing persons. They make up 44% of all cases reported from Home Office hotels—68 in total. Over a quarter of the missing children from these reception centers—65—are Afghan nationals. About 23 of those are Iranian.
A December 2023 federal district court decision found the practice of routinely sticking children in hotels to be illegal. This decision has resounded to create louder and wider attention on this important issue. As advocates, we believe that these measures unnecessarily expose children to harm. These children come to the UK in search of safety, only to face the prospect of exploitation themselves.
“These figures are shocking. Behind each number is a frightened child who will already have experienced egregious human rights abuses before arriving in the UK seeking safety,” – Esme Madill.
Madill focuses on the awful outcomes of such disappearances. She points out that children who manage to survive the trauma of trafficking do so with chronic mental and physical health issues. These problems stem from the violence they experience while they’re out. The truth is deeply sad, as too many kids don’t run away but rather are victims of sexual exploitation, trafficking, cartel violence, and other perilous situations.
In her testimony, Patricia Durr points to the increased vulnerability to trafficking and exploitation for children who go missing from care. “Once a child does go missing, the risk that they are being exploited increases significantly,” she stated. Durr’s research sheds light on the unique vulnerabilities that unaccompanied minors experience. A significant number of these children will have been trafficked into the UK or exploited while making their perilous journeys.
Yet in the face of these alarming statistics, UK authorities maintain that they act in the best interest of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. A spokesperson for the Home Office stated, “The safety and welfare of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children remains a priority, and we take children going missing extremely seriously.” The agency continuously examines its methods, working with state and local police departments to solve cases of missing children.
The Kent County Council (KCC) was determined not to place vulnerable youth in dangerous situations. “Any child or young person missing from care is a serious concern and we take every effort to protect them,” a KCC spokesperson remarked.
As frustrated advocates told us, these new measures don’t do enough. They think they don’t do enough to tackle the systemic failures that allow children to fall through the cracks.
“For one child to go missing represents an abject failure of the state to protect the most fragile and abused in their care,” Madill added.
The disturbing pattern of lost child asylum seekers poses stark dangers. Social services organizations and law enforcement agencies are caught in an awful bind while trying to protect these vulnerable individuals. Unfortunately, most of these kids come in needing the help yesterday. They tend to fall through the cracks of a system that is not doing enough to protect them.
Durr stresses that it is imperative to prioritize child safeguarding over other considerations, ensuring that unaccompanied minors receive the care and protection necessary for their well-being. She argues that when it comes to these children, policy makers must put the kids’ best interests first.
“They should be playing football in the park and preparing for their GCSEs, not servicing trafficking gangs in conditions we know include being chained to furniture, physically and sexually assaulted, and punished by being starved of food,” Durr said.