Hundreds of kid asylum seekers have gone lacking in UK, authorities admits

CNN
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Hundreds of kid asylum seekers have gone lacking because the British authorities began housing minors in accommodations as a result of a pressure on the nation’s asylum lodging system, British Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick instructed lawmakers in parliament on Tuesday, amid requires an investigation into the matter.

Jenrick mentioned Tuesday that round 200 kids have gone lacking since July 2021. “Out of the 4,600 unaccompanied children that have been accommodated in hotels since July 2021, there have been 440 missing occurrences and 200 children still remain missing,” he mentioned.

Roughly 13 of the 200 lacking kids are beneath the age of 16, and one is feminine based on authorities knowledge. The vast majority of the lacking, 88%, are Albanian nationals, and the remaining 12% are from Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Vietnam, Pakistan and Turkey.

Jenrick blamed the issue on a rise in migrant boat crossings via the English Channel to the UK which left the federal government “no alternative” than to make use of “specialist hotels” to accommodate minors as of July 2021.

Though the contracted use of accommodations was envisioned as a short lived resolution, there have been nonetheless 4 in operation as of October with over 200 rooms designated to youngster migrants, based on a report from the Unbiased Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration.

British charities and migrant rights teams have lengthy complained in regards to the dangerous situations within the nation’s overwhelmed and underfunded asylum system.

The variety of asylum claims processed within the UK has collapsed lately, leaving individuals in limbo for months and years – trapped in processing amenities or short-term accommodations and unable to work – and fueling an intractable debate about Britain’s borders.

The lacking migrant kids was first reported in British media on Saturday, when the newspaper The Observer reported that “dozens” of asylum-seeking kids have been kidnapped by “gangs” from a lodge run by the UK House Workplace in Brighton, southern England.

Calls have since been mounting for an pressing investigation into the matter, with the the opposition Labour Occasion, human rights group the Refugee Council, in addition to native authorities demanding pressing motion.

The House Workplace has known as these reviews unfaithful and in an announcement to CNN a House Workplace spokesperson mentioned: “The wellbeing of children in our care is an absolute priority.”

The spokesperson added that they’d “robust safeguarding procedures” in place and ” when a toddler goes lacking, native authorities work intently with companies, together with the police, to urgently set up their whereabouts.”

Whereas the British authorities is with out the ability to detain unaccompanied minors, who’re free to depart the accommodations, Jenrick defended the UK House Workplace’s safeguarding practices saying that information are stored and monitored of kids leaving and returning to the accommodations and that assist employees are available to accompany kids off website on actions and social excursions.

“Many of those who have gone missing are subsequently traced and located,” Jenrick instructed parliament.

Shadow House Secretary Yvette Cooper, from the opposition Labour Occasion, blamed human traffickers in her response to parliament saying “children are literally being picked up from outside the building, disappearing and not being found. They are being taken from the street by traffickers.”

Cooper mentioned “urgent and serious action” is required to crack down on gangs to maintain kids and younger individuals secure.

“We know from Greater Manchester Police, they’ve warned asylum hotels and children’s homes are being targeted by organised criminals. And in this case, there is a pattern here that gangs know where to come to get the children, often likely because they trafficked them here in the first place,” she added. “There is a criminal network involved. The government is completely failing to stop them.”

On Monday, UK charity Refugee Motion mentioned that it’s “scandalous that children who have come to this country to ask for safety are being put in harm’s way. Ultimate responsibility lies with the Home Secretary, and her decision to run an asylum system based not on compassion, but hostility,” they added.

UK charity the Refugee Council tweeted that they’re “deeply concerned by the practice of placing separated children in Home Office accommodation, outside of legal provisions, putting them at risk of harm with over 200 of them having gone missing.”