Dozens of child asylum seekers missing from care system

More than 50 lone asylum seeker children, who have disappeared soon after arriving in the UK and while in the care of the authorities, are still missing, according to new data obtained by the Guardian.

- Diane Taylor

Many of the missing children arrived in small boats or hidden in the back of lorries and are thought to have fallen into the hands of traffickers. Kent is often the first place they reach.

Freedom of information data from Kent county council (KCC), which is controlled by Reform UK, has documented 345 children going missing from their area, with 56 of those still missing.

Between 2021 and 2023, when the Home Office operated two hotels for children in Kent, along with hotels in other areas, 132 children went missing from these two hotels with 108 later found and 24 still missing.

Between 2020 and August 2025, 213 children went missing from the council's reception centres for this group of children, with 182 found and 32 still missing.

In both cases Albanian children were the largest group to go missing, making up half the total in the Home Office hotels - 68 - and a quarter in the reception centres - 65. The second and third largest nationalities in both places who have gone missing are Afghans followed by Iranians.