More than 2,000 vulnerable children who were either trafficked or arrived in the UK alone seeking asylum have disappeared from local authority care across the country, according to alarming new data obtained through freedom of information requests.
Scale of the Crisis
The comprehensive investigation, conducted by charities ECPAT UK and Missing People, gathered information from children's services departments across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Their findings reveal a disturbing pattern of safeguarding failures affecting some of the most vulnerable young people in Britain.
Data from 135 local authorities showed that out of 2,335 children identified as trafficked or suspected trafficking victims, a staggering 864 (37%) were reported missing from care arrangements. Meanwhile, information from 141 councils about unaccompanied child asylum seekers revealed that 1,501 out of 11,999 (13%) had disappeared from their designated placements.
Systemic Failures in Protection
The report, titled "Until Harm Ends", highlights that these children face very high risks of further exploitation and re-trafficking. Many trafficked children in the UK are British citizens, while others come from overseas backgrounds. They typically suffer from either sexual exploitation or criminal exploitation, including involvement with county lines drug gangs.
Despite local authorities having statutory duties to protect these children under established child protection frameworks, the report identifies a "continuing and significant failure" in safeguarding practices. The absence of published central government data on this issue has made it difficult to track the scale of the problem until now.
Accommodation Concerns and Policy Gaps
One critical concern raised by the charities involves accommodation standards for older children in care. While current regulations require looked-after children under 16 to be placed in settings that provide proper care, 16 and 17-year-olds can still be housed in "supported accommodation" that doesn't provide day-to-day care.
In exceptional circumstances, these vulnerable teenagers can be placed in hostels, caravans, tents, boats, or shared housing with unrelated adults - environments that potentially expose them to further risks.
Patricia Durr, chief executive of ECPAT UK, stated: "This report highlights the risk trafficked and unaccompanied children face. It remains challenging to understand why these children continue to be failed. They are consistently let down by the systems meant to support them."
Jane Hunter, head of research and impact at Missing People, added: "Every child deserves to feel safe and protected, yet trafficked and unaccompanied children are repeatedly failed by the very systems designed to safeguard them."
Government Response and Proposed Reforms
A government spokesperson responded to the findings by highlighting their planned reforms: "This government inherited a children's social care system failing to meet the needs of the country's most vulnerable children. Our landmark children's wellbeing and schools bill is the biggest overhaul of children's social care in a generation."
The proposed measures include improving care placement availability, enhancing information sharing between agencies, establishing multi-agency child protection teams in every area, and introducing new duties to include education settings in safeguarding arrangements.
The charities are calling for urgent action to ensure all trafficked and unaccompanied children receive appropriate accommodation that protects them from being exploited again, alongside improved adherence to safeguarding best practices by local authorities and police forces.
