Britain admits to 200 child refugees missing in its care

The British government acknowledged on Tuesday that it had lost track of 200 minors who arrived at the United Kingdom without their parents and seeking asylumraising alarms about the lack of security granted to the children and young people in a state of vulnerability.

Since July 2021, 4,600 unaccompanied migrant minors have been admitted to hotels in the country, but hundreds have disappeared in the care of the British authorities. This was admitted by the Immigration Minister, Robert Jenrick, in Parliament.

The deputy of the environmental party Caroline Lucas, who questioned Jenrick about the case, described as “horrible” that “vulnerable children are abandoned” by the Ministry of the Interior.

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Within a year and a half 440 disappearances were reported and 200 children remain unlocated. Of them, 13 are under 16 years of age 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.

“The uncomfortable reality for us is that if even one child related to anyone in this room went missing, the world would come to a standstill,” said Labor Party lawmaker Peter Kyle. “But in the community that I represent, one child has disappeared, then five disappeared, then a dozen disappeared, then 50 and currently 76 have disappeared and nothing happens”, he continued, referring to 76 young people who disappeared from a hotel in the city of Brighton.

This incident was denounced by The Guardian, whose article citing child protection sources and an anonymous Interior Ministry official explains that the minors were kidnapped at the hotel door and put into cars.

The British Conservative government has been criticized in recent months for the reception conditions for the increasing number of irregular migrants arriving by sea from the French coast.

Labor spokeswoman for Immigration, Yvette Cooper, accused the government of “a complete neglect of functions that is putting children at risk.” (YO)