Vietnamese and Albanian Children Disappearing in UK After Being Smuggled, MPs Told

Undated family handout photo of 15 year-old Dinh Dinh Binh, from Hai Phong, one of the 39 Vietnamese migrants, aged between 15 and 44, that were found dead in the back of a trailer in Essex on Oct. 23, 2019. PA Media

Vietnamese and Albanian children are disappearing in the UK after being smuggled in illegally, MPs and Lords have been told.

In one case, a dozen children from Vietnam were dropped by lorry at the side of a motorway in England and within 24 hours, all 12 were unable to be found.

Others have gone missing from Home Office funded hotels for illegal immigrants, as well as local care authorities after they’ve made the dangerous journey across the English Channel alone via small boats, the Human Rights Joint Committee heard.

Colin Pettigrew, chair of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) at Migrant Families Taskforce, said of the 200 unaccompanied children currently missing from hotels or care homes, most are believed to be Albanian and most likely being criminally exploited.

“Anecdotally the evidence, particularly with regards to Vietnamese children, is they are arriving to work but to be exploited in the workplace, whether that’s in cannabis grow houses,” he told the Wednesday’s committee.

“And we understand that those children arrive in debt, or their families are in debt to the traffickers. And so there is a link back to their family in their country of origin, on a requirement to pay back that debt.”

200 Missing

Earlier this year, it was revealed that of the 4,600 unaccompanied minors who have arrived in the UK by small boats or other unauthorised means since July 2021, 440 had gone missing while housed in hotels.

More than half returned, but around 200—including over a dozen under the age of 16—have not been found.

Mr. Pettigrew said: “We also know anecdotally that children from some countries of origin are much more likely to go missing than others, particularly Vietnamese children and Albanian children. In the East Midlands and 2018, 1 in ten of our unaccompanied asylum-seeking children were reported missing. Today, that’s one in 200.

“That was 21 children in 2018 and its two children across the East Midlands today, all of those children both in 2018, and today were from Vietnam.”

Following the surge of Vietnamese children going missing in the East Midlands five years ago, Mr. Pettigrew said police worked internationally to help close the “pipeline” down.

“If you had the data with regards to those 200 [currently missing], my suspicion would be, but lack of data is not helpful to either you or, to us as an association, is that a significant number of that 200 would be Albanian, children, young people.”

The ADCS chair expressed “frustration” with the lack of data surrounding missing unaccompanied children, telling the committee it was hindering how to address the problem.

“Our lack of data around this is a matter of frustration, around being able to use that data to come to some conclusions about what approach we might take.

“For instance, to Vietnamese children arriving in a way that might be different to children arriving from other countries of origin and we know the level of risk of them going missing.

“We had an incident within the East Midlands, where a truck stopped on the side of the M1.

“A dozen Vietnamese children left that truck, and within 24 hours, all 12 were missing.”

The 'White Scanner' boat used by people smugglers based in Kent, England, pictured during a rescue by an HM Coastguard helicopter, a Border Force cutter and the RNLI approximately five miles from the English coast on May 28, 2016. NCA

Hotels

In June, Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick was asked about fears that the missing minors had fallen into the hands of traffickers or criminal gangs.

Mr. Jenrick told MPs that there was “no evidence that people have been abducted from outside hotels” adding that intelligence suggested some had left to gain employment in “the grey or black economies.”

The minister said that strict protocols are in place to deal with missing children including MARS (Missing After Reasonable Steps), which is widely used across children’s homes and supported accommodation for minors.

As of June, over 24,000 unaccompanied children were being housed in government accommodation, the minister told the Commons.

In July, the High Court ruled that the “systemic and routine” housing of unaccompanied child migrants in hotels is unlawful.

In a judgement issued against the Home Office, Mr. Justice Chamberlain said its ongoing use of hotels for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children should “be used on very short periods in true emergency situations.”

Mr. Pettigrew told MPs and Lords that, as of Friday, there are currently no minors being housed in hotels.

He also said that the implications of the Illegal Migration Act, and the Rwanda deal—which will see adult asylum seekers move to a safe country such as Rwanda—was forcing children to disappear before turning 18.

“I think that there’s two particular times that there is a higher risk of children and young people going missing, that’s immediately on arrival, when they had previously been in hotels, or they’re still in Kent waiting to be dispersed.

“And there might be a reason for going missing might be around being trafficked, exploited—it might be around not wanting to be transferred to another part of the country, and that the reason for coming here was to work in London or another city.

“And then I think that one of the unintended consequences of the Illegal Migration Act, as the association sees it, is that we will we suspect that there will be a likelihood of children going missing as the as they get towards their 18th birthday.”