Trafficking risks for unaccompanied children in Home Office hotels

This is a report entitled Behind Closed Doors: A Storytelling Legal and Empirical Analysis of Human Trafficking Risks in Home Office Hotels Compared to Other Accommodation for Unaccompanied Children and Young People Seeking Asylum in the UK. The research was carried out by University College London's Everyday Disasters and Violences Research Group at UCL's Department of Risk and Disaster Reduction (PI), in collaboration with UCL’s Human Trafficking, Smuggling and Exploitation Research Group at UCL's Department of Security and Crime Science (Co-I) and ECPAT UK (Co-I). This research was funded through the Modern Slavery PEC's open funding call on prevention of modern slavery.

Context

A recent and controversial practice development is the use of Home Office-commissioned hotels to house unaccompanied children claiming asylum in the UK. From July 2021 to January 2024, seven Home Office hotels were established and finally decommissioned after the High Court in 2023 deemed their regular operation (rather than acting as ‘emergency’ accommodation) unlawful. There were concerning indications that the establishment of Home Office hotels for unaccompanied children may exacerbate risks of trafficking and various forms of exploitation. This was strengthened by media reporting over 440 missing episodes (some as young as 12 years old) among the 5,400 unaccompanied children housed from July 2021 to June 2023.

It is from this background that the study explored the lived experiences and perceptions surrounding the trafficking and exploitation risks among unaccompanied children placed in Home Office hotels while seeking asylum in the UK. The legal and empirical storytelling research provides a comparative analysis of risk and protective factors for children seeking asylum between Home Office hotels and local authority care settings. The research findings guide us toward what measures can be taken to prevent trafficking and exploitation, how we can mitigate trafficking and exploitation risks associated with these children’s accommodation environments, and how to improve early intervention for unaccompanied children seeking asylum in the UK.

Key findings

1. The empirical storytelling interviews and legal analysis showed that the use of Home Office hotel accommodation for unaccompanied children seeking asylum increased the risks of both trafficking and exploitation as well as re-trafficking risk for those children having been trafficked into the country.

1. The research findings link adultification and children being placed in adult accommodation for people seeking asylum, which remains a risk after the child hotels have closed. The empirical data revealed that children seeking asylum were not only placed in and trafficked from the children’s hotels, but an increasing number of children were reportedly incorrectly deemed as adults by the Home Office and thereby face similar and other associated risks (such as trauma, abuse, and exploitation by other adults) in adult hotels.
2. The research raised particular concerns about young unaccompanied Albanian people and trafficking. Our legal and empirical analysis drawing from professional experiences repeatedly indicated that Albanian children accommodated, and in particular Albanian boys, are especially vulnerable to trafficking and exploitation, as well as experiencing an increasingly precarious situation because of the relabelling of Albania as a ‘safe country’ for removal and Albanian boys as ‘criminals’ and ‘scapegoats’ in media as in the political discourse.

Key recommendations

1. The UK government must commit to an independent inquiry into the disappearance of children from Home Office hotels and an extensive plan of how to find and support those children and young adults who remain missing.
2. The UK government must ensure local authorities children’s services have sufficient funding to provide quality care and support to all unaccompanied children seeking asylum and commit to only determine someone is an adult in exceptional circumstances.
3. The Home Office must not commence the provision to accommodate unaccompanied children in the Illegal Migration Act 2023.
4. The UK government and relevant ministries and departments must work together to ensure appropriate safeguarding measures are implemented in the accommodation of children and young people identified as being at risk of trafficking including sufficient resourced and specialist trained accommodation and support staff (social workers, health workers and teachers).
5. Police forces must investigate the disappearance of all missing children equally (whether British or an unaccompanied child seeking asylum) as well as potential incidents of human trafficking and exploitation.