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In the Guardian today, the above headline and:

Forty children who went missing from hotels housing asylum seekers in the UK have still not been found, according to a parliamentary report.

Ministers are facing calls from MPs and peers to explain what they are doing to locate the group, two of whom are believed to still be under 18. The figure emerged in a report on Thursday by the joint committee on human rights on how the social care system is failing young adults.

In 2023, it emerged that more than 440 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children had gone missing from Home Office hotels, some of whom were reported to be as young as 12. The cross-party committee has been told by a witness that 40 of the cohort of missing children have still not been found.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/aug/27/forty-children-reported-missing-uk-asylum-hotels-2023-still-not-found

Though there have been no recent reports of similar issues in Scotland, there was in 2019 a report of child asylum seekers or child refugees going missing in Scotland though the numbers. In 2017, the Daily Record 5 out of 46 going missing.¹ Between 2018 and 2020, the Ferret reported 11 out of 600 going missing.²

Sources:

1. https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/children-trafficked-scotland-vanished-council-13848280
2. https://theferret.scot/missing-trafficked-children-protection-crisis/

How is this contrast explained?

Scotland IS different as it protects unaccompanied children seeking asylum

In the HOUSE OF LORDS European Union Committee 48th Report of Session 2017–19 HL Paper 428 Brexit: refugee protection and asylum policy, we read:

‘The Refugee Council, for example, noted that unaccompanied children seeking asylum in Scotland and Northern Ireland had access to independent guardians, but that an equivalent service was only available to children in England and Wales who had [and who could prove that they had] experienced modern slavery.’

Click to access 428.pdf

This follows the research the University of Birmingham showing that ‘EU families in Scotland feel more welcome and safer than south of the border.’

Click to access eurochildren-brief-8-sigona-godin-scotland.pdf

Here’s another reason:

Why has there been a massive but unreported reduction in the number of children on the child protection register in Scotland and a widening gap with the other 3 nations but the Herald is on a completely different track?

Number on child protection register in Scotland falls by 30% in last eight years to nearly 20% lower per head than in England, as public services are protected from the worst of ConLab austerity by 18 years of SNP government

Earlier reports here reveal a consistently more humanitarian approach to refugees and other migrants:

Different NHS Scotland and Wales reject England’s hostile environment for vulnerable migrant mothers-to-be

It is a matter of life in Scotland and death in England

Only Guardian and Al Jazeera tell us EU families and ‘Eurochildren’ in Brexiting Britain feel safer in Scotland

Scotland drifting away from nasty place as SNP Government launches funeral benefit for those on low income

Help Talking-up Scotland keep going

Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going

Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421