Forty people who disappeared as children from UK asylum seeker hotels have still not been located, prompting parliamentarians to demand the Government outline its efforts to trace them.
While the majority of those who vanished have since turned 18, two remain children, the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) said as it highlighted its anxiety over the missing young people.
It was revealed in 2023 that more than 400 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children had gone missing from Home Office hotel sites, with some reported to be as young as 12.
That same year, the High Court ruled that the Home Office’s routine practice of placing lone child asylum seekers in hotels was unlawful.
At the time, the Conservative administration stated that "due to the unsustainable rise in illegal Channel crossings, the Government has had no option but to accommodate young people in hotels on a temporary basis while placements with local authorities are urgently found".
The JCHR report confirmed that, as of June this year, 40 people who went missing during their childhood had still not been found.
A director of children’s social care at the Department for Education, told the committee: "Guidance was issued to police from the Home Office, to be shared with local networks, to ensure that we continue to look for those children and that we can surface whether they have been found, and information can be updated to provide more reassurance."
In a letter sent to the committee last year in her then-role as border security and asylum minister, Dame Angela Eagle noted that some of those who were traced were "located in exploitative situations and may have been trafficked or victims of other forms of exploitation".
The committee, which published a wider report on children’s social care on Thursday, said: "We welcome the fact that the majority of missing children have now been found.
"However, we continue to be extremely concerned about the fact that some children who went missing from asylum hotels in previous years remain missing."
Parliamentarians called on the Home Office to "make clear what specific action is being taken to locate these children, to investigate the causes for them going missing, and to avoid unaccompanied asylum-seeking children going missing in the future".
They further requested that the Home Office provide updates every three months "with details of efforts to locate the children who remain missing".
Dame Rachel de Souza, England’s Children’s Commissioner, said she shared the report’s "serious concern" regarding the missing youngsters.
She added: "Every child arriving in this country has the right to safely apply for asylum and to be provided with shelter and support while they do so.
"The disappearance of these children represents an unacceptable failure, and the Government must set out the action it is taking to locate those still missing and prevent this happening again."
A Government spokesperson said: "The safety and wellbeing of children is paramount, and we take any child going missing extremely seriously.
"The Home Office-operated accommodation for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children closed in January 2024. Since then, the vast majority of children reported missing from those settings have subsequently been located.
"Police forces are responsible for investigating missing children cases and we continue to review our records, share relevant information with them and work closely with local authorities and safeguarding partners to support those investigations."
The findings come after it was announced earlier this month that an additional 13 hotels housing asylum seekers had closed, following Labour’s commitment to end the use of asylum hotels entirely prior to the next election.
Ministers are expanding the use of more "basic" locations, such as former military barracks. The latest closures are expected to save taxpayers £51 million, reducing the total number of sites below 160, down from a peak of around 400 under the Conservatives.