Almost fifth of lone Albanian child refugees in Kent missing

[habibihabibi]

I read this headline today but don't understand how one let, alone 39 children slip through the net. Does anyone know how and what likely happens to them?
Presumably they come to the UK , are processed and placed in care so they can attend school .
Why isn't there press and police reporting about these missing kids ?

Ukrainians have to show their passports and be biometrically checked and recorded before/when entering the UK.

There’s a kid in ds’s year 9 class who has a full beard, and is about 6ft tall. He’s white, but when they’re white we just call them good farming stock/good rugby players.

But when foreign kids appear older (either from the trauma of living in a war zone/making a dangerous journey, or just generally being from big “stock”) they’re liars, pretending to be kids, scamming the system. Have I got that right?

Can you show me the evidence of where this is happening in schools across the Uk? Not a daily Mail headline, I mean real evidence.

No kids should be sharing a classroom with an adult, which is why schools raise any concerns as a soon as they have them to try to prevent this. But the accounts of this happening are wildly exaggerated by the far right, and by people like the poster above who will claims foreign boys are “adults” while no doubt bragging that their year 9 son is the tallest in the class.

I understand the criminality of trafficking but don't understand how the governments border controls, who clearly have a much clearer understanding aren't taking action to curb it. The system is encouraging exploitation.
Equally the government of countries like Albania and Romania have responsibilities to address when it comes to people smuggling out of their borders.

They are often trafficked. They arrive still owing the money in exchange for the journey. They are taken and moved elsewhere to work this off. Occasionally, they get away and return to placement and then it repeats

@habibihabibi i honestly don’t know either and can only agree 100% with you that currently the system is encouraging exploitation.

Sadly right now the government is too intent on using immigrants to stoke division to actually care about fixing the problem or stopping the boat crossings.

Aka trafficking

This is appalling.

Because the government aren’t really bothered. They use it to appeal to a certain group of voters and that’s it. The things that would reduce the problem are not likely to be things that that group of voters will like.

And expecting this government to have any sense of morality or to care about the welfare of people being trafficked is wishful thinking. They really only care about themselves and making as much money as they can.

Agree with Rafa. Far from taking action to curb it, the government has actually left the position of independent Anti Slavery Commissioner empty since April 2022. (It’s a legal requirement for this post to be filled.) So that’s one less avenue they have for tackling trafficking and labour exploitation.

And why this is a bad thing? Because it lets the government get away with its anti immigrant/anti asylum seeker rhetoric unchecked. And that’s a bad thing, because they don’t often tell you the truth.

The head of Britain’s labour abuse watchdog says her organisation has not seen anyone “gaming” the modern slavery system for immigration purposes.
The comments directly contradict the home secretary, Suella Braverman, who said last week that trafficking claims from “people gaming the system” were “derailing the UK’s policy on illegal migration”.

The chief executive of the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, Elysia McCaffrey, said: “We don’t see people gaming the system. That’s not our experience.

“What we see is vulnerable people who are being exploited by opportunists and criminals.”

97% of those who claimed to be trafficked were confirmed as genuine by the authorities.
amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/oct/09/watchdog-disputes-bravermans-claim-migrants-gaming-slavery-laws

It doesn’t take much imagination to see how the government failing to deal with this can impact your community and your (white/British) children, so it’s worth actually caring that the government is lying to you.

I do not have enough words for how much I despise this government. They will let literally anyone die as long as they can see a way for it to benefit them. It doesn’t matter whether they are U.K. citizens, asylum seekers or trafficked children.

Actually no.
He has not returned this term and we have been told that he was not of school age.

@Highfivemum Are you saying that the school told all the parents that?

This is a new one for me. I’m used to the accusations directed at black and brown foreign boys, but seeing someone use these comments directed at white Europeans is a first. How do you feel about white British boys in yr 9 who are 6ft tall, with beards and deep voices? Do they get a pass?

Also that someone can read this thread and their main take away is “yeah well a few of them are actually adults” and completely ignore that children and teenagers are trafficked and missing and in danger in mind blowing to me. Yes, you have to take extreme care that no one is scamming the system and safeguarding - especially in schools - is always followed to the letter, but never the point where you demonise entire groups of people.

This thread on twitter might be an informative read for you
mobile.twitter.com/LaurenHStarkey/status/1476131769774653443?s=20&t=seblOiL7SBAmSA7s98_lkQ

As would this:
The Refugee Council has run an Age Disputes Project since 2010. Last year, the it worked with 233 young people whom the Home Office determined to “certainly” be adults. But, after age assessments, 94% were found to be children.
amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/30/home-office-age-disputes-child-asylum-seekers-abuse-risk

Leaving aside the age assessment and trafficking issues: the UK does not, on the whole, accept Albanian adults’ claims of asylum. Most Albanian children know that they are likely to be deported the minute they turn 18- going missing shortly before their 18th birthday and going into risky situations is not unusual and is often a response to what they know is coming.

And here’s the consequence of the Home Office putting children into hotels rather than local authority care. This is horrific.

Revealed: scores of child asylum seekers kidnapped from Home Office hotel.

Dozens of asylum-seeking children have been kidnapped by gangs from a Brighton hotel run by the Home Office in a pattern apparently being repeated across the south coast, an Observer investigation can reveal.

A whistleblower, who works for Home Office contractor Mitie, and child protection sources describe children being abducted off the street outside the hotel and bundled into cars.

“Children are literally being picked up from outside the building, disappearing and not being found. They’re being taken from the street by traffickers,” said the source.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jan/21/revealed-scores-of-child-asylum-seekers-kidnapped-from-home-office-hotel

Every poster who’s come on this thread to perpetuate the “they’re all adults pretending to be children” myth, this is what you allow by believing and spreading that shit. Children being kidnapped so the government can appease racists. What a fucking low.

Albanians trafficking women and children has been happening for years across Europe as has the rise of County lines over the years and proliferation of drug use. I can’t help feeling that organised crime is allowed to flourish in UK, they must have support in high places.