Greater than 50 lone little one asylum seekers who disappeared quickly after arriving within the UK and whereas within the care of the authorities are nonetheless lacking, based on knowledge obtained by the Guardian.
Lots of the lacking youngsters arrived in small boats or hidden within the backs of lorries and are thought to have been taken by traffickers. Kent is commonly the place the place they arrive.
Freedom of data knowledge from Kent county council (KCC), which is managed by Reform UK, has documented 345 youngsters going lacking from their space, with 56 of these nonetheless lacking.
Between 2021 and 2023, when the Residence Workplace operated two motels for kids in Kent, together with motels in different areas, 132 youngsters went lacking from these two motels. Of those, 108 had been later discovered however 24 are nonetheless lacking. Between 2020 and August 2025, 213 youngsters went lacking from the council’s reception centres for this group of youngsters, with 182 discovered and 32 nonetheless lacking.
In each instances, Albanian youngsters had been the biggest group to go lacking, making up half the whole from the Residence Workplace motels, 68, and greater than 1 / 4 from the reception centres, 65. The second and third largest nationalitiesto have gone lacking from each locations are Afghans adopted by Iranians.
Esme Madill, of the Migrant and Refugee Youngsters’s Authorized Unit at Islington Regulation Centre, stated: “These figures are stunning. Behind every quantity is a frightened little one who will have already got skilled egregious human rights abuses earlier than arriving within the UK searching for security. After we symbolize youngsters who’ve escaped after being trafficked while ‘lacking’ within the UK, we see how their psychological and bodily well being is completely harmed by the abuse they expertise throughout this time.
“For one little one to go lacking represents an abject failure of the state to guard probably the most fragile and abused of their care. These numbers are within the a whole lot.”
She stated extra wanted to be accomplished to search out the lacking youngsters. “They haven’t chosen to ‘go lacking’. These youngsters needs to be enjoying soccer within the park and getting ready for his or her GCSEs, not servicing trafficking gangs in situations we all know embrace being chained to furnishings, bodily and sexually assaulted, and punished by being starved of meals.”
In December 2023, following a long-running excessive courtroom case referring to lone little one asylum seekers lacking from all Residence Workplace motels, the follow of routinely accommodating youngsters in motels was dominated illegal. KCC as an alternative agreed to extend safety for these youngsters by increasing using reception centres. Since that courtroom ruling one other 44 youngsters have gone lacking from these centres, with 10 nonetheless lacking and 34 discovered.
Patricia Durr, the chief govt of Each Youngster Protected Towards Trafficking UK, stated such knowledge was at all times alarming.
“As soon as a baby does go lacking, the danger that they’re being exploited will increase considerably and they’re actually extra susceptible to exploitation and trafficking,” she stated.
“Our analysis over a few years reveals simply how [much] extra in danger unaccompanied youngsters are as they’re separated from dwelling, households, pals and communities and will have been trafficked into the UK, trafficked en route, or trafficked after arrival.”
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She referred to as on the federal government and public authorities “to prioritise little one safeguarding over different concerns, to afford unaccompanied youngsters the care and safety they want and make sure that all selections are made in youngsters’s greatest pursuits”.
A KCC spokesperson stated: “Any little one or younger particular person lacking from care is a critical concern and we take each effort to guard them.
“Unaccompanied asylum seeker youngsters are susceptible to being trafficked and exploited because of their separation from household and circumstances of their journeys to the UK.”
The spokesperson stated expert social staff assessed the youngsters’s threat of being exploited with safeguarding protocols utilized in partnership with different businesses, akin to police and the Residence Workplace.
“KCC additionally refers youngsters to mechanisms and companies to assist handle the danger of exploitation within the UK, together with the nationwide referral mechanism and the Unbiased Youngster Trafficking Guardian Service. Even then it’s difficult to stop all youngsters from going lacking.”
A Residence Workplace spokesperson stated: “The protection and welfare of unaccompanied asylum-seeking youngsters stays a precedence, and we take youngsters going lacking extraordinarily significantly. We proceed to commonly evaluate our methods for updates if this takes place, sharing related info with native police forces and native authorities investigating the matter.”
