Five teenage asylum seekers who were to be transferred to the Highlands never made it, a report has revealed.
Highland Council is expected to take 43 children seeking refuge under the Home Office’s National Transfer Service.
As of April this year, 33 young people have transferred through the service.
But five of those, all aged 17 or 18, went missing.
Three were located in Belfast, Sheffield and London respectively.
The other two are now in supported foster care in London.
Missing asylum seekers ‘a local and national concern’
Highland Council’s health, social care and wellbeing committee will discuss a report on the matter on Thursday.
The group of 33 are from Afghanistan, Iran, Albania, Sudan, Iraq, Kuwait
and Turkey.
It is not unusual for these young people to go missing from hotels when they are transferred to a local council across the UK.
Report author Margaret McIntyre, the council’s head of children and justice social work, said: “This is a local and national concern.
“Missing young people can be at risk of significant harm and exploitation.
“Some young people do not want to be transferred into local authorities across Scotland. Particularly those more remote authorities, such as Highland.
“These young people are adamant they want to stay in the larger urban areas outwith Scotland.
“This is a complex area in which local authorities across Scotland are facing major pressures.”
Police Scotland is part of a steering group and gives regular updates on efforts to find missing young people.
But Highland Council is ultimately responsible, including financially, for these separated children.
Highland staff took Kent fact-finding trip
Separated children are defined as those up to the age of 18 who arrive in the UK without a parent or legal guardian, seeking safety and asylum.
They are often fleeing political and religious persecution, violence, war, famine and abuse.
Separated children have faced considerable threats. Journeys into the UK – frequently in small boats landing in Kent – are perilous, traumatic and life-threatening.
A group of Highland Council officers visited Kent to meet with leaders of the small boats operation group and the Kent Intake Unit last year.
The unit is a holding and detention centre.
A statement from the officers after their visit said: “The dangers associated with this crossing are sobering.
“The absolute substandard quality of the equipment used, the level of overcrowding on these boats, allied with the low levels of skills and abilities of the pilots, putting the lives of families and children at risk.”
How the Highlands has welcomed asylum seekers in the past
The Highlands offered a warm welcome to people fleeing the war in Ukraine.
In the past, Syrian and Afghan refugees have also arrived.
The Highlands for Ukraine was among the volunteer groups who sent tonnes of aid to the country.
Its seven-tonne delivery left Inverness in April 2022 and included more than 250,000 packs of nappies and thousands of bars of soap.
The UK Government’s asylum policy has come under increasing scrutiny recently.
The Home Office insists there are a number of “safe and legal” routes to the UK.
But some are only available to people from specific countries like Afghanistan and Ukraine.
Critics of the government’s asylum proposals, such as the Refugee Council, say they risk breaking international law.
Conversation