British Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick announced the loss of trace of 200 minor asylum seekers who arrived in the United Kingdom without their guardians in the past 18 months.
The minister told Parliament - yesterday, Tuesday - that 13 of these children are under the age of 16, and one of them is a girl, adding that most of them are Albanians.
The minister's admission came two days after a report by the British newspaper, The Observer, said that young asylum-seekers had been "kidnapped" by criminal gangs outside their hotels in Brighton, southern England.
A source working for Mitte, a government contractor, told the newspaper: "Children are literally snatched out of the building, they disappear and can't be found. Smugglers snatch them from the street."
While Sussex Police said they had not received any reports of people being kidnapped from hotels in Brighton, they did receive a report of two children staying at a hotel getting into a nearby car in May.
"The car was stopped on the highway, two men were arrested on suspicion of human trafficking, and 3 young passengers were taken away and placed in the care of the Ministry of Interior," police said.
Since July 2021, Jenrick said, "440 missing persons" have been registered as asylum seekers who have not voluntarily returned to their hotels.
He added that a large number of security personnel are present in the hotel as well as nurses and social workers, and pointed out that 88% of the missing are Albanian citizens.
Jenrick said, "When any child goes missing, several parties move in addition to the police and the relevant local authorities. Many of those who have gone missing are being tracked," as he put it.