BASW UK Statement on Missing Migrant Children

We are deeply concerned to read the reports of asylum-seeking children going missing from hotel accommodation run by the Home Office. We believe that this is a further worrying development in failures in Home Office practice to protect the most vulnerable children and young people.

Children seeking asylum are key targets for traffickers and abusers because they often do not have close family who will look for them. The children will often be used to transport drugs or take part in other forms of criminal activity. Moreover, fears of being deported to Rwanda or kept in unsuitable accommodation will add to the number of children being persuaded to join in with gangs or traffickers as it is made to look like the preferred option.

Asylum seeking children and young people need to be placed in appropriate local authority provided accommodation where their educational, health and other needs as children can be met as is required under law.

There are often severe problems for local authorities in sourcing sufficient appropriate accommodation at short notice. The drivers for this are complex and include government under-investment in local authority children’s services, increasing demand and the failure of the government to respond constructively to the ever- worsening refugee crisis.

2022 saw the passage into law of the Nationality and Borders Act which made important changes in regard to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. BASW and many voluntary sector organisations were vocal in campaigning against the Bill arguing that rather than improve matters the Bill would make things worse. So it is proving to be with the latest response of the UK Government being to dump children in hotel accommodation which is completely unsuitable.

 The negative rhetoric used by successive Home Secretaries to talk about refugees - and by extension unaccompanied asylum-seeking children -  is dangerous as it may create fear amongst young people being kept in accommodation waiting out the asylum-seeking process, and it also undermines the work carried out by social workers to determine an objective age estimation and appropriately support those assessed to be children.