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Two hundred unaccompanied migrant minors who were housed in hotels by the British Government are still missing, the Executive of Rishi Sunak reported on Tuesday, accused by an opposition party of having “abandoned” them.
They’re missing”. The British Government announced on Tuesday, January 24, that two hundred unaccompanied migrant minors had left their accommodation without trace.
“When a child is reported missing, there is a “protocol that is mobilized, together with the police and local authorities, to determine their whereabouts and ensure that they are safe,” explained the Secretary of State for Immigration, in Parliament. Robert Jenrick, who clarified that minors are not retained in these hotels and can leave freely.
Since July 2021, almost 4,600 unaccompanied minors have been accommodated in these shelters, while the record numbers of small boats crossing the English Channel (45,000 in 2022) are putting intense pressure on the British asylum system.
Robert Jenrick said 440 have been reported missing and “200 children” are still missing. 13 of them are under 16, and only one is a girl.
88% of the young people reported missing are Albanian, the rest come from Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Vietnam, Pakistan and Turkey. Greens MP Caroline Lucas, who raised the issue in Parliament, called it “horrible” that “vulnerable children are being abandoned” by the Home Office.
Conservative MP Tim Loughton stated that in Sussex (south of England) no abduction of minors by gangs had been reported to the Police.
On January 22, ‘The Observer’, the Sunday edition of ‘The Guardian’ newspaper, reported on the abduction of children from a hotel in the southern coastal city of Brighton, citing an informant working for a contractor from the Ministry of the Interior and sources from the child protection services.
Interior Ministry sources told the newspaper that “it is not true” that unaccompanied minors have been expelled from their hotels.
with AFP
