UN voices concern over disappear of asylum-seeking children in UK
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – The United Kingdom (UK) must protect all children seeking asylum and put an end to the practice of placing unaccompanied children in hotels, UN experts said on Tuesday.
In a press release, the experts voiced concern over unaccompanied asylum-seeking children who are going missing and are at high risk of being trafficked within the UK.
They criticized the current policy of housing unaccompanied children in temporary hotel accommodations, saying that it is “discriminatory”, and added that failures and gaps in child protection increases risks of “trafficking”.
They called for tracing the missing children.
The UK fails “to abide by its core obligations under international human rights law to ensure the best interests of the child … and to prevent trafficking of children,” the experts said.
4,600 unaccompanied children were housed in six hotels since June 2021, however, 440 of these children were disappeared, according to the experts.