OMFG Children being kidnapped from Home Office Hotel

[MorelloKisses]

Children kidnapped from Home Office hotel

"A whistleblower, who works for Home Office, describes children being abducted off the street outside the hotel and bundled into cars".

How is this not top news story?? Those poor children.

Isn't copy and pasting about immigration what the Daily Wail does every other day?

So these 'teenagers' have been groomed, they have survived a channel crossing and now safe in the uk. They've been fed, clothed from Primark and have a roof over their head and in the system under a name they've chosen/been allocated. They're still in contact with a network of people who speak their language and are the key to their new life of freedom in the UK.....not in jail. There are a variety of reasons these children are going 'missing' and for some it was part of the plan

@MarshaBradyo There are no hard feelings, I was probably being a stubborn git about something!

*somehow, even. Word are hard.

Just to clarify I don’t think it’s the fault of a trafficked teen but I still don’t think ideas of fostering / or children’s homes are right
for safeguarding reasons.

If people judge it with their parenting perspective would they be happy to foster?

Not knowing age or what has been arranged with criminal gangs.

Feel free to post yes and explain why you would be, happy to hear more

@Whatdayisitalexa Ah ok, best just to ignore the ones who it wasn’t the plan for them. “What’s that, you got picked up and trafficked? Well some other guy ran away to Blackpool to see the lights so you’re on your own, kid.”

Or, perhaps, we could hold the Home Office to account for the missing children who are in their care and their lack of effort to find them?

And even more groundbreakingly, why doesn’t the Home Office help unaccompanied children find relatives in the UK if they’re here instead of leaving it to charities and luck? Why would they stop children and teenagers being looked after by family members? Would save the govt some money, wouldn’t it.

Evidence from the Homes for Ukraine scheme suggests that very many people would answer yes.

@MarshaBradyo Yes, I would, 2 boys 12 and 14. But I work with asylum seekers and foster carers who look after unaccompanied asylum seeking children, so I don’t fall for the scare stories. The only thing stopping me is being a family of 4 in an effectively 2 bedroom house. But I do also have training in trauma informed care and I’m used to communicating with people I don’t share a language with, which I can appreciate other people don’t have. Foster carers do an amazing job and I’ve seen kids really flourish being in a home environment.

When you say you work with unaccompanied asylum seeking children / foster carers are these teens who have connections with traffickers?

How would you stop a gang leader picking them up?

@MarshaBradyo For the sake of who I work with, I’m going to have to ask you to stop saying “connections with traffickers”. That sounds like a friendship/acquaintance and trust me that is not the case. I’m at a loss as how to fix this misconception, honestly. The vast, vast majority are not “choosing” to have connections with traffickers in any way shape or form. The contact would be unwanted and/or coerced. The children I have worked with who have been trafficked are not currently “in touch with” their traffickers, who are in Europe or Africa and are responsible for many physical and mental scars the kids carry. If you’d seen the effects of trafficking first hand, I think you’d also struggle to say any contact was willing.

I will stress the importance of having strong connections between the school, foster carers, police local authority and local refugee charities, and we work hard to build trust with the kids so they can open up about any fears they have or things they’ve heard.

Beware the connection is there because coercion continues. Trafficking is ongoing, it was you I think that first alerted me to the threats family members were placed under to ensure the trafficking was maintained.

Is this not the case?

Connection does not imply friendship it is due the financial arrangement made. If there was no threat or need to continue once arriving in the U.K. people wouldn’t be so under threat once here.

You are reading too much into a word.

Are they still at risk from gang leaders due to threats on arrival or not?

If you can keep them safe what happens to family members threatened in original country? If the threat is not there to family people being picked up wouldn’t be such an issue to solve

Thank you @Realfastfoodie , I did thank you upthread but Mumsnet deleted my post. To avoid deletion again, I’ll simply say that I agree with you 100% and will elaborate no further 😁

Understood @BewareTheLibrarians!

@MarshaBradyo I’m going to pull a Marsha here as I’m far too tired to continue, but I will say that, no, I haven’t tried to mislead you, but the type of trafficking differs between nationalities. Albanians are much more at risk of continued trafficking within the UK, and the threats to the family back home as the gangs operate in the UK and Albania. For other nationalities, the trafficking happens to get them to Europe/through Europe to the UK. Those traffickers are not in the UK. I work with asylum seekers in the second category.

I keep saying this is a big and complex topic because it really is. I really wish it wasn’t derailed by so many anti-immigration posts as they take time and energy away from an important discussion.

Thank you. This is what I thought and have been trying to go to I think

It is complex and it’s important to separate groups as different factors impact each depending on country of origin. I can see that the second category is different.

I appreciate the posts and have a good evening 😀

@MarshaBradyo to add, that in itself is a bit of an oversimplification as asylum seeking children of all nationalities are at risk of trafficking, but in my personal work experience (possibly due to our area and connections) it’s not something we have to deal too much. But it is something we have to be very aware of. Sorry. Typing through a headache so not sure how coherent that is.

Thanks @MarshaBradyo you too! And sorry, I meant my post was an oversimplification, not your reply. Help! 😂

Appalling

@BewareTheLibrarians "I really wish it wasn’t derailed by so many anti-immigration posts as they take time and energy away from an important discussion."

To claim that people are “anti-immigration” is disingenuous. It would be fairer to say that most people are concerned by uncontrolled immigration, which is what we have now.
Some people have valid concerns about uncontrolled immigration and have a right to express those concerns.
Mass migration under Labour between 1997-2010 increased the UK population by 2.2 million. (That's equivalent to the population of Birmingham/Wolverhampton)
It would be naive to think that this influx did not put intolerable burdens on our housing, NHS and services.

This seems to have surfaced again on the news with majority 16 and 17 year olds from Albania in group who are missing,

If the answer is foster care I’d ask if their families are under threat at country of origin as no matter where they are they will be at risk of going to ensure their families aren’t harmed.

If it’s not the case then that’s up to foster carers. It’s not something I’d do with young dc but others may feel differently. You’d need good safeguarding in place, not sure how you assess but again if people feel it can be robust enough.

@MarshaBradyo "This seems to have surfaced again on the news with majority 16 and 17 year olds from Albania in group who are missing,"

From the Telegraph; www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/24/x-ray-age-checks-rapidly-introduced-killer-asylum-seeker-posed/

Whether this will actually be implemented, or is just a 'knee-jerk' reaction remains to be seen. Given that there have been objections to this from Human Rights Groups the latter seems more probable.

So the Government are 'damned if they do and damned' if they don't🙄

Oh come on. No one can seriously think that the UK has uncontrolled immigration, when we have the tightest controls on immigration we have ever had.
You can tell how tight the controls are that desperate people fleeing war and persecution are prepared to get into unsafe craft to cross the Channel.

The current government has been in office for over 12 years. I wouldn't hold your breathe at them managing to implement anything.