Monitoring Desk
LONDON: Children’s advocates and opposition parties accused the British government on Tuesday of putting vulnerable youth in danger following authorities said dozens of children who arrived in the UK as asylum-seekers have vanished.
UK
Minister for Immigration Robert Jenrick told legislators that over 200 children and teenagers under 18 were missing from government-sponsored accommodation. He said most were Albanians teenage boys.
Labour Party MP Peter Kyle said as many as 76 children had disappeared from a hotel in the town of Brighton.
According to the Observer newspaper dozens of youngsters had been kidnapped in the street outside a Brighton hotel.
Labour’s immigration spokesperson, Yvette Cooper, accused the UK government of “a total negligence of duty that is putting kids and young people at risk.”
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The children’s commissioner for England Rachel de Souza said the reports of children missing from hotels “have underlined, once again, the vulnerability of these kids and youth.”
Rachel de Souza said that she is concerned for the safety of the children whose vulnerability is exacerbated by not speaking English.
Minister for Immigration said security guards, social workers, and nurses were all based at hotels to make sure children were safe. The Minister said that he had no evidence of kids being kidnapped from the street but promised to probe further.
Over 45,000 people arrived in the UK across the Channel in the previous year, and many died in the attempt. The UK’s government had pledged to stop these risky journeys.
