Nearly 450 refugee children disappear from asylum hotels in UK, Parliament debate on family visas told

Nearly 450 refugee children disappeared from asylum hotels in the UK in just a few years, Parliament has been told.

Peers called for unaccompanied children who come to the UK as refugees to be allowed to bring their families, branding current rules “inhumane”.

They made their appeal as thousands of asylum seekers and economic migrants continue to risk their lives to reach the UK by crossing the Channel in overcrowded and unseaworthy inflatable boats.

They include a number of children, with a baby dying in a tragedy off the French coast earlier this month.

The Refugees (Family Reunion) Bill seeks to protect the “rights of people who seek safety in the UK, to be joined by their family”, Liberal Democrat Baroness Hamwee, who tabled the Bill, said.

She stressed: “The first purpose of the Bill is to provide in primary legislation, not just in amendable rules that can be changed without Parliament’s involvement or scrutiny, the rights of people who seek safety in the UK to be joined by their family.

“It is not enough to hope that the Home Office will use its discretion.”

Former top judge and independent crossbench peer Baroness Butler-Sloss argued that children are being “exploited and trafficked” under current rules.

She told peers: “Unaccompanied refugee children are not well cared for in this country, there are many dangers for all of them.

“Between 2021 and 2024, children were being placed in asylum hotels and 440 disappeared. 132 have not yet been found, where are they? Almost certainly they’ve been trafficked.”

Lady Butler-Sloss added: “These children, I have to say, need families. They don’t need care homes. It would save a lot of money, the present Government might look at the cost to the country of the care of each individual child.”

Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oates told the Upper Chamber: “Nowhere is that lack of human feeling more apparent than in the effective prohibition of children granted refugee status in the UK sponsoring the immigration of their close family members.

“It is hard to imagine the deep emotional trauma that this must cause for child refugees already traumatised by the process that led them to seek refuge in the first place, now discovering that they are barred from ever reuniting with close family in the UK.”

Conservative frontbencher Lord Sharpe of Epsom argued the Bill “would potentially jeopardise vulnerable children’s safety as well as having substantial implications for our already stretched public resources”.

Home Office minister Lord Hanson of Flint said: “In our 106th day in office, it would be rash to take those steps today without a reflection on that as a long-term responsibility.”

He added that “wherever possible family reunion is important”, but went on to say: “There are criminal gangs who will watch this debate, watch the progress of this Bill, and will seek to exploit the issues before us.”

He agreed to examine many of the proposals by fellow peers but gave little sign that the Government is set to adopt the proposed strengthening of family visa laws.