Dozens of migrant children still missing years after vanishing in UK
Dozens of immigrants who disappeared from UK asylum hotels as children in 2023 are still unaccounted for, a parliamentary report released on Thursday has found.
Some 472 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children – some as young as 12 – went missing from Home Office-run accommodation for migrant minors.
According to the Director of Children’s Social Care at the Department for Education, Helen Waite, 432 have since been located, leaving 40 unaccounted for. Most have since turned 18, but two remain underage.
The committee “welcomed” that most had been found but said it remains “extremely concerned” about those still missing. It urged the Home Office to detail efforts to locate them, demanding updates every three months. Angela Eagle, then border security and asylum minister, told the committee last year that some of those found were “located in exploitative situations and may have been trafficked.”
Commenting on the report, England’s Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza called the situation an “unacceptable failure.”
“Every child arriving in this country has the right to safely apply for asylum and to be provided with shelter and support while they do so,” she said, urging the government to prevent such disappearances from happening again.
At its peak in June 2023, more than 51,000 asylum seekers were housed in over 400 Home Office hotels across the UK. Human rights groups argued the facilities were unsuitable for children. In 2024, the High Court ruled that placement of unaccompanied minors in hotels was unlawful, and dedicated facilities were subsequently closed.
Immigration has become an increasingly contentious political issue in Britain amid continued Channel crossings, protests over asylum accommodation, high-profile migrant-linked crimes and renewed scrutiny of the country’s grooming-gangs scandal. The controversy contributed to mounting pressure on former Prime Minister Keir Starmer before his resignation earlier this summer. His successor, Andy Burnham, has pledged to stop small-boat crossings but declined to set a deadline.
Europe has faced sustained migration pressure since 2015, when more than a million people arrived, largely from the Middle East and Africa. The issue returned to the spotlight last month after more than 72,000 people crossed into Spain’s Ceuta enclave, overwhelming reception facilities and renewing calls for tighter border controls. Following the crossing, media reports said Ceuta was processing around 2,000 unaccompanied minors, many of whom were reportedly left on the streets with shelters overwhelmed. Police reportedly investigated at least five alleged rapes of minors linked to the influx.
