The Home
Office has admitted 360 children are currently unaccounted for in this country
and it has no idea where they are or if they're safe
Hundreds of
vulnerable child refugees are
missing in the UK prompting fears they have fallen victim to human traffickers, it's
reported.
The
government has admitted 360 children are currently unaccounted for in this
country and it has no idea where they are or if they're safe.
More than
200 of those youths have been missing for over two years, according to figures
released by the Home
Office to the Independent through
a freedom of information request.
The
statistics show that in the last five years, 9,287 children arrived in the UK
as "unaccompanied minors" - many fleeing war, poverty and persecution
in their home countries.
But in this
time, 360 have vanished - 81 of which have been missing for five years, 77 have
been unaccounted for four years and 87 children haven't been seen for three
years.
It comes
amid fears that the missing children have been preyed on by trafficking gangs.
Child
welfare experts have warned missing children refugees are often suffering from
severe trauma and are in an extremely vulnerable position.
Frances
Trevena, of Coram Children’s Legal Centre Migrant Children’s Project, told the
newspaper: "Trafficking gangs run sophisticated networks in order to
traffic children into or within the UK for the purposes of exploitation,
including sexual exploitation, forced labour and domestic servitude.
"Those
who do go missing are at a great risk of exploitation from their traffickers or
others who may seek to exploit them further.”
Immigration
or border staff have a duty to inform the local authorities when a child
refugee arrives in the UK alone and after an assessment by social workers,
placed in children's homes or with foster families.
The child
should be regularly checked on by the state, including having routine meetings
and phone calls to ensure their safety.
If they fail
to make the appointments or don't answer phone calls, social workers should
alert authorities.
Campaigners
and MPs slammed Theresa May's government, saying that youngsters are being
"let down by a system which is meant to keep them safe".
Yvette
Cooper, the former shadow home secretary and Labour MP, said that the Prime
Minister should "urgently address this crisis".
She told the
Independent: “We are failing victims of child trafficking, effectively turning
a blind eye to their disappearance."
In response
to the figures, a Government spokesperson said that agencies "work closely
with local authorities and police" to find vulnerable, missing children.
They added
that it has established the National Transfer Scheme to "promote a fairer
distribution of caring responsibilities across the country".
It comes as
campaigners set up camp outside the Home Office to demand Britain does more to
ease the refugee
crisis and save children’s lives.
Supporters
including faith leaders and celebrities handed in a list of names of 387
refugee children living alone in the Calais ‘Jungle’ camp and called for them
to be taken in by the UK.
Nearly 200
have relatives they should be free to join in Britain, campaigners said.
The protest
took place on the year anniversary of three-year-old Aylan
Kurdi washing up on a tourist beach in Turkey .
The picture
of his lifeless body being pulled from the sea after trying to flee Syriasparked a global
outrage that his father said was all too brief.
MIRROR
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