HUNDREDS of people are expected to gather outside the Home Office in London on Thursday to protest at ministers’ “institutional neglect” of unaccompanied child asylum-seekers. 

The demonstration, due at 6pm, has been organised by the Action Against Detention and Deportation (AADD) coalition to demand that the government takes steps in response to revelations that 200 children have gone missing from Home Office hotels in the past 18 months. 

Reports say that many have been abducted by trafficking gangs. 

The Home Office has been accused of ignoring repeated warnings from charities that its policy of placing children in hotels along the south coast, instead of in local authority care, has put them at risk of exploitation by traffickers. 

Ahead of Thursday’s protest, a coalition spokesperson said: “It is well known that these hotels are safeguarding vacuums, incredibly unsafe places for children. 

“That so many have gone missing is unsurprising. Indeed, it is a direct and foreseeable result of gross negligence by the state, which has abdicated its responsibilities towards these children.

“We demand answers and action because these children’s lives and futures are at stake and we don’t want the same mistakes to be repeated with new arrivals.”

MPs have accused Home Secretary Suella Braverman of “doing nothing” to find the missing children. Their criticism followed a report in the Observer that 79 children had disappeared from one hotel in Brighton. 

A whistleblower working at the hotel told the paper that children had been “abducted” from the street outside and bundled into cars.

Children held at the hotels have also allegedly faced emotional, racial and sexual abuse, according to reports. 

Global Women Against Deportations, a member of the coalition, called for nationwide searches to try to locate the missing children. 

Black Activists Rising Against Cuts co-founder and migrant rights campaigner Zita Holbourne said: “It is horrific that so many vulnerable children have gone missing in the asylum system. 

“There needs to be an urgent investigation and public inquiry, with
those responsible held accountable. The human rights of children must be protected.”

Another protest is also being held outside Hove town hall, the headquarters of Brighton and Hove City Council, at 4pm on Thursday.