Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 101
101
Accepted
Paragraph: 301
Secure more appropriate accommodation with urgency for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
Conclusion
Clearly it is not appropriate to accommodate children in hotels, particularly unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. The Government needs to show greater urgency in securing more appropriate accommodation, that is suitable for the needs of children, notwithstanding the need to keep families together.
Government Response Summary
The government accepted the recommendation, stating that it agrees local authority care is best and has now closed all hotels for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children by January 2024, securing more appropriate accommodation.
Paragraph Reference:
301
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
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.