By Biodun Busari

Hundreds of children seeking asylum in the United Kingdom have gone missing in hotels they are kept, according to British Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick on Tuesday.

The children are being kept in government-managed hotels due to a strain on the country’s asylum accommodation system.

Jenrick told lawmakers in parliament yesterday, amid calls for an investigation into the matter, CNN reported.

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The minister said that around 200 children have gone missing since July 2021.

“Out of the 4,600 unaccompanied children that have been accommodated in hotels since July 2021, there have been 440 missing occurrences and 200 children still remain missing,” Jenrick said.

Approximately 13 of the 200 missing children are under the age of 16, and one is female according to government data.

The majority of the missing, 88%, are Albanian nationals, and the remaining 12% are from Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Vietnam, Pakistan, and Turkey.

British charities and migrant rights groups have long complained about the bad conditions in the country’s overwhelmed and underfunded asylum system.