Children Seeking Asylum: Safeguarding Debate

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Department: Home Office

Children Seeking Asylum: Safeguarding

Lord Coaker Excerpts
Monday 23rd January 2023

(1 year, 10 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Coaker Portrait Lord Coaker (Lab)
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We are all horrified by what we have heard and read about these cases of children going missing—I will say “kidnapped”—from some of these homes. Is it true that the Home Office were warned months ago about these problems? Is it true that the Home Office ignored those warnings and failed to act? If so, that is a failure of the state to act as a parent. With Home Office sources denying that these children have been kidnapped, can the Minister at least confirm that the department accepts legal responsibility for their safety now, even if it did not in the past?

Lord Murray of Blidworth Portrait Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con)
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Certainly, the department does not know of any cases of kidnap. The reports in the media over the weekend are of course the subject of investigation within the Home Office but, at the moment, nothing like that has been reported to us to my knowledge.