ECPAT UK and University College London examine risks of Home Office child hotels in operation between July 2021 and January 2024
Every Child Protected Against Trafficking UK (ECPAT UK) and University College London (UCL) published a report on Wednesday on the human trafficking risks caused by the use of hotels to house unaccompanied child asylum seekers.
You can download the 62-page report here.
Funding for the report came from the Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre (Modern Slavery PEC), a consortium of three academic organisations led by the University of Oxford.
The report explores the lived experiences and perceptions surrounding the trafficking and exploitation risks among unaccompanied children placed in Home Office hotels while seeking asylum in the UK. It also provides a comparative analysis of risk and protective factors for children seeking asylum between Home Office hotels and local authority care settings.
As the report notes, seven hotels were commissioned and used by the Home Office to house unaccompanied asylum seeking children between July 2021 and January 2024. The hotels were closed after the High Court found the controversial practice was unlawful.
The report states: "In July 2023, Mr. Justice Chamberlain of the High Court in London ruled that the routine use of hotels for children had become unlawful, as the power to place children in hotels was only intended to 'be used on very short periods in true emergency situations' and cannot be used as a substitute for local authority care (ECPAT UK v KCC and SSHD: paragraph 4 and 5). The court also found Kent County Council to have acted in breach of its Children Act 1989 duties by failing to accommodate and look after all unaccompanied children seeking asylum when notified of their arrival. Following the ruling, the hotels were slowly shutdown with the final remaining hotel closing at the end of January 2024."
ECPAT UK and UCL finds in their report that housing lone children in the hotels increased the risks of both trafficking and exploitation, as well as being a re-trafficking risk for those children who were trafficked into the UK.
It was reported that 440 children went missing among the 5,400 unaccompanied children housed in the hotels between July 2021 and June 2023. Of the children reported missing, 144 had not been found by November of last year, including a 12-year-old boy, and 118 were still missing in March of this year.
Albanian children were found to be at particular risk. A large proportion of the children who went missing from hotels were Albanian.
ECPAT UK and UCL explained: "The research raised particular concerns about young unaccompanied Albanian people and trafficking. Our legal and empirical analysis drawing from professional experiences repeatedly indicated that Albanian children accommodated, and in particular Albanian boys, are especially vulnerable to trafficking and exploitation, as well as experiencing an increasingly precarious situation because of the relabelling of Albania as a 'safe country' for removal and Albanian boys as 'criminals' and 'scapegoats' in media as in the political discourse."
UCL's Dr Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson, the lead author of the report, said the situation was a national scandal that must not be repeated.
The report also highlights how an increasing number of children were reportedly incorrectly deemed as adults by the Home Office and placed in adult hotels, which lead to similar and other associated risks such as trauma, abuse, and exploitation by other adults.
Following the findings of their research, ECPAT UK and UCL look at what measures can be taken to prevent trafficking and exploitation, mitigate risks, and improve early intervention for unaccompanied children seeking asylum in the UK.
The report concludes with a list of policy recommendations to better safeguard and protect unaccompanied children seeking asylum in the UK.
Patricia Durr, CEO of ECPAT UK, commented: "We warned authorities from day one about the risk they pose to unaccompanied children – given their increased vulnerability to exploitation and raised the alarm about children going missing. Despite these warnings, the practice continued for years and ended only when our small organisation took both the Home Office and Kent County Council to court, with the practice deemed unlawful.
"This research confirms our fears and emphasises the need for urgent action to find the missing children and a statutory independent inquiry to ensure this child protection scandal never happens again. We also urge the new government to urgently tackle the chronic funding crisis facing children's social care. We remain concerned about the powers in the Illegal Migration Act, which are not yet in force and would allow the Home Office to directly provide accommodation for unaccompanied children. The new government must commit to repealing this catastrophic legislation which will undermine the rights of children and increase their vulnerability to abuse."