Three Special Rapporteurs express concern and alarm over UK's policy of housing unaccompanied children in hotels
In a notable statement issued today, a group of United Nations human rights experts, known as Special Rapporteurs, have said the UK is failing to protect unaccompanied children who are seeking asylum.
Image credit: WikipediaThe statement was issued by the UN's Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, and the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences.
The three Special Rapporteurs said they were alarmed by the UK's current policy and practice of housing unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in hotels instead of under the responsibility of local authorities.
They stated: "The current policy of placing unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in hotels places them outside of the UK child protection system and is discriminatory … The UK Government appears to be failing to abide by its core obligations under international human rights law to ensure the best interests of the child, without discrimination, and to prevent trafficking of children."
As the statement explains, around 4,600 unaccompanied children have been housed in hotels in the UK since June 2021 and hundreds have gone missing. As of 23 January 2023, some 220 mostly Albanian children remained unaccounted for.
"We are deeply concerned at reports that unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are going missing and are at high risk of being trafficked within the UK," the UN Special Rapporteurs said.
All unaccompanied children seeking asylum must be protected by the UK without discrimination on grounds of nationality, migration status, race, ethnicity and/or gender, the Special Rapporteurs stressed.
In concluding the statement, the Special Rapporteurs noted that the practice of housing children in hotels has allegedly developed in a climate of increasing hostility in the UK towards asylum seekers, refugees and migrants, and towards victims of trafficking and contemporary forms of slavery.
The Good Law Project is currently crowdfunding for legal challenges to seek the proper protection of unaccompanied children seeking asylum in the UK.
Explaining the reasons for bringing the legal action, the Good Law Project said: "The Home Office has been accommodating unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in hotels for 19 months, despite describing it as a temporary and emergency measure in 2021. During this time, 4,600 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children have been placed in hotels, 440 missing episodes have been recorded, and 200 children remain missing. We are working with Article 39 - a charity that fights for the rights of children living in state and privately-run institutions - on three separate legal actions to keep these vulnerable children safe, including challenging the Home Office's controversial practice of housing unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in unregulated hotels."
Article 39 has more information about the challenges in a press release here.
Carolyne Willow, Article 39's Director, said: "In concocting this so-called emergency arrangement, which has lasted more than 19 months, the Home Office has kept nearly 5,000 children away from our country's child welfare system operated by local authorities. This lawlessness puts children at risk and degrades our child welfare system. … Government must properly fund local authorities to look after all children who are without parental or family care and protection, no matter where those children were born. It's no answer for the Home Office to say it's acting outside child protection law because local authorities don't have homes for children – Ministers must fix the crisis in the children's care system, which means substantial new funding and sustained, high-level government commitment to children in the care of local authorities, no matter how they became to be separated from their families."