Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer given by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 25 January (HL Deb, cols 665–6), what assessment they have made of the report in the Independent, on 17 April 2016, of at least 239 refugee children in the UK having disappeared from care facilities in the UK, and the report by ECPAT UK <i>Heading back to harm: A study on trafficked and unaccompanied children going missing from care in the UK</i>, published in November 2016, claiming that from September 2014 to September 2015, 593 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children went missing from care at least once.

The Government has a comprehensive framework for safeguarding children, including unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children. In light of the recent increase in arrivals of refugee children into the UK, we have been working with local authorities, non-government organisations and other public bodies to make sure that looked after migrant children receive the immediate support they need.

This support has included making sure local authorities are aware of the heightened risk that they may go missing due to being trafficked. We are also funding the Refugee Council and ECPAT to deliver training for foster carers and support workers of unaccompanied migrant children, who may be at risk of trafficking, to ensure they can also offer the appropriate support to the children in their care.

On 1 November we announced through a written ministerial statement our plans to publish a strategy, by 1 May 2017, for the safeguarding of unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children in England. In developing this strategy, we will consult local authorities to identify any further action that might be taken to prevent these children going missing.