LONDON, UK
Some 200 children who were seeking asylum in the UK went missing after they were placed in hostels run by the government, the Home Office minister admitted Monday in official testimony.
Speaking at the House of
Lords, Simon Murray said many of the missing children were later tracked down
and found, The Guardian reported.
The disclosure came after The
Observer, The Guardian’s sister daily, reported that a whistle-blower from a
hostel in the seaside city of Brighton, run by the Home Office, claimed that
some children had been abducted outside the hotel and forced into cars
"The Home Office have no
power to detain unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in these hotels and we do
know that some of them go missing,” he added, adding that many “are
subsequently traced."
Answering a question from
Liberal Democrat peer Paul Scriven, Murray added that one girl and at least 13
under-16s were among those missing after being placed in hotels run by the Home
Office.
He said that 88% of the 200
missing children were Albanian nationals, adding that it would be wrong
"to make generalizations regarding the reason” the minors go missing.
According to The Guardian,
nongovernmental organizations have repeatedly raised concerns over children
that go missing from accommodation and have offered to help the government keep
them safe, but the Home Office has turned down these offers.
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