Questions unquelled in case of missing asylum-seeking minors in Brighton, UK hotel

By Burak Bir

BRIGHTON, England (AA) - Amid a recent revelation of dozens of asylum-seeking children in Britain missing from hotels run by the government, their whereabouts and the key question of how this "scandal" happened remains shrouded in mystery.

Using hotels and hostels run by the Home Office to accommodate vulnerable people, especially unaccompanied children, has always been controversial in the UK since the practice began in July 2021.

Despite local authorities' warnings that children were being kept in "unsafe housing" at such accommodations, the government has yet to change course.

Langfords Hotel in Brighton, run by the Home Office, is one of the addresses where asylum-seeking children were temporarily settled, according to early reports. Many children have reportedly gone missing from the establishment and some were allegedly kidnapped.

Visiting the seaside city, Anadolu captured footage of the hotel, interviewing locals and council officials to understand more as the government and local authorities trade blame.

Though the hotel, which is five minutes from the city center by car and just 150 meters (about 500 feet) from the Hove Seafront, was marked "permanently closed" online, the footage shows significant in-and-out activity and lights on in the building.

- Hotel attacked 18 months ago

Speaking to Anadolu on condition of anonymity, a resident who lives just across the street from the hotel said it was attacked nearly a year and a half ago, just after asylum-seeking minors were first placed there.

"Fifteen to 20 people came around, smashing their windows and saying, 'Go back home' ... The police came in and broke them up," said the local, who has lived in the area for nine years.

Those children whom the local happened upon in the street appeared 14-17 years old, had mobile phones, and were well-mannered and well-dressed.

While native residents were initially angered by the children being placed at the hotel, many came to accept them later on, treating them normally.

The children themselves were also very polite, said the local, who added that they had seen no bad behavior from them.

"Most of them were removed in the last week to 10 days," they said, noting that there weren't any police in the area despite the reports of missing people and kidnappings.

- Voluntary departure unlikely

"I don't think they should be in an adult's environment because they're always vulnerable in that situation," said Rob Anderson, who used to run a hotel in Brighton.

Anderson believes that some of the children would have been over 18 but pretended to be minors to avoid deportation.

"I don't see why they would leave voluntarily if they have nowhere else to go," said Anderson, expressing his concern that they may have been taken against their will to perform forced labor or prostitution. "Or God forbid, they've been murdered."

Being trafficked or coerced into criminal gangs are two other possibilities that many fear the missing children may be facing, especially after the reports of abduction.

Meanwhile, a city council source told Anadolu that the setting up and running of hotels for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children had always been "the sole responsibility" of the Home Office.

"We have continued to raise with the government our concerns about the Home Office's use of hotels throughout the country to accommodate asylum-seeking children on a temporary basis," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

He added that as a local authority, they looked forward to hearing more from the Home Office about alternative arrangements to house asylum-seeking minors.

- Row between government, opposition, local authorities

Simon Murray, a Home Office minister, admitted on Monday that across the country, some 200 children who were seeking asylum in the UK went missing after they were placed in hostels run by the government.

The disclosure came after The Observer, The Guardian's sister daily, reported that a whistleblower from one such hostel in Brighton claimed that some children had been abducted outside the hotel and forced into cars.

Following the revelation, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described the news as "truly appalling and scandalous."

On Tuesday, the House of Commons heard an urgent question by Green Party lawmaker Caroline Lucas on what steps the government was taking to ensure the safety of children placed at the hotels and to find asylum-seeking children who were missing.

Demanding "immediate answers" from the authorities on the missing children, Lucas said the "staggering complacency and incompetence from the Home Office is shameful."

- Over 4,600 unaccompanied children accommodated in hotels

Though the government lays the blame on local authorities for the scandal, last year, the Brighton and Hove city councils asked the Home Office to stop using a hotel in the area holding scores of child refugees.

Sussex Police said that since the Home Office began housing asylum-seeking children, who were separated from their guardians or arrived alone, at hotels in Brighton and Hove in July 2021, 137 unaccompanied children had been reported missing. Of those, 60 were found and 76 remained under investigation.

According to Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, over 4,600 unaccompanied children have been accommodated in hotels since July 2021.

Police had received no reports of people being kidnapped from hotels but last May, officers were told that two children had gotten into a car that was later stopped on the M25 motorway that encircles London, with two men subsequently arrested on suspicion of human trafficking.

The government is still under fire over "failing" to provide basic protection to asylum-seeking children, as UK lawmakers continue to press and demand answers on the matter.

In the last prime minister's questions at parliament, British premier Rishi Sunak said his government wanted to put an end to the use of hotels for some unaccompanied asylum seekers in the country.