Sunak urged to probe 'unlawful scheme' for housing migrant children

• 

Over 100 UK charities have signed an open letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak urging him to support an independent investigation into the disappearance of scores of asylum-seeking children from Home Office hotels.

Children's rights organization ECPAT UK and the Refugee Council also signed the letter, which condemned the government's "failures to protect vulnerable children from harm."
 
“There is no legal basis for placing children in Home Office hotel accommodation, and almost two years into the operation of the scheme - which is both unlawful and harmful - it is no longer possible to justify the use of hotels as being 'temporary',” the document reads.

Read next: Sunak vows action on 'illegal migration' after Macron meeting 

According to the charities, the Home Office "repeatedly failed" to commit to an end date for the scheme.

Chief executive of the Refugee Council, Enver Solomon, stressed that “[…] children who have experienced unimaginable horror and upheaval coming to our country [the UK] in search of safety are highly traumatized and vulnerable.”

“The government has a very clear legal duty to protect them, but is failing to do so, with the equivalent of several classrooms of children seemingly having disappeared into the clutches of those who will exploit and abuse them. This is a child-protection scandal that councils, the police and ministers must urgently address to ensure every single separated child matters and is kept safe,” he added.
 
Expat UK CEO Patricia Durr agreed with Solomon, saying that "despite evidence of the risks and numerous representations, the [British] government has ignored the warnings and is yet to commit to an exit strategy, seemingly preferring to entrench this discriminatory approach to some of the most vulnerable children with the greatest need of protection and care."

Read next: Increase of 17,000 migrants illegally crossed channel to UK in 2022
 
Durr pointed out the urgency to commit to end this practice immediately and to ensure that separated children are as cared for and protected as all other children within our legal and well-established child welfare framework. He added that the government must provide local authorities with sufficient funds to properly fulfil their legal duties to children.
 
The remarks come after Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick told MPs that about 200 children, mostly teenage Albanian boys, remain missing from hotels housing asylum seekers. He described the situation as "extremely concerning," but added that he had not seen evidence the children were being abducted.