Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 100
100
Accepted in Part
Paragraph: 300
Unaccompanied children in contingency accommodation highly vulnerable to trafficking and going missing.
Conclusion
Unaccompanied children living in contingency accommodation are particularly vulnerable to being trafficked, or re-trafficked. Between July 2021 and 19 October 2022, there were 391 episodes where children went missing from hotels. This is unacceptable.
Government Response Summary
The government agrees that local authority care is best and has closed six of seven hotels for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children by November 2023, with the last closing in January 2024, directly addressing the vulnerability in contingency accommodation.
Paragraph Reference:
300
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
113. The Government agrees that the best place for unaccompanied asylum- seeking children (UASC) is within the care of a local authority. Six of seven hotels were closed on 30 November 2023, with the remaining hotel closed 31 January this year. 114. The Modern Slavery Statutory Guidance highlights numerous indicators and factors that first responders should consider when considering making an NRM referral. These indicators and factors mean that each case is unique, and so all cases should be handled with the case-specific information that can be obtained. 115. A policy on blanket NRM referrals for all children who go missing would remove the case-specific nature of the NRM process and may cause more issues than benefits. For example, it may lead to significantly more pressure on decision-making timescales as there would be many more referrals to consider where referrals are made for children who are not potential victims and there are no genuine first responder concerns of trafficking. 116. Additionally, if every missing child were referred into the NRM, this may lead to negative reasonable or conclusive grounds decisions due to a lack of information. This could subsequently be damaging to a child if further information comes to light that they have been trafficked, as relevant professionals may see a child’s previous NRM decision without understanding the level of information considered, so may not feel a new NRM referral is necessary.