Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people aged under the age of 18 have been reported as missing from asylum hotels in (a) the London Borough of Hounslow and (b) London.

The safety and wellbeing of asylum seekers in our care is of paramount importance to the Home Office. We expect high standards from all of our providers, and we have a robust governance framework in place to manage service delivery of the Asylum Accommodation Support Contracts (AASC). Details of the AASC can be found at:

New asylum accommodation contracts awarded - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab).

We have no power to detain unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in these hotels and we know some do go missing. Many of those who have gone missing are subsequently traced and located.

Children’s movements in and out of hotels are monitored and recorded and they are accompanied by support workers when attending organised activities and social excursions off-site, or where specific vulnerabilities are identified.

When a young person goes missing the ‘missing persons protocol’ is followed led by our directly engaged social workers. If a child who has gone missing is returned to the hotel, a follow up Multi Agency Stakeholder Forum (MASF) will be chaired by the LA (of the area the hotel is in) and a Social Worker at the hotel will complete a returns interview. They will then work with the child to understand the reasons for the absence.

The Home Office work around the clock with the police and local authorities to ensure the children in our care are safe and the Police are responsible for locating any missing children.

The Home Office does not hold data for the number of adult and children asylum seekers that were accommodated via the Home Office that are missing in a reportable format and it would require a manual search of records which would incur a disproportionate cost.