Police chiefs have admitted the tactics being used to track down large groups of Channel migrants vanishing from hotels are “often impracticable”.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council conceded “hundreds” have disappeared from taxpayer funded asylum accommodation within “24 hours” of arriving in the UK.
Officers are only told to treat them as “missing” if they are believed to be facing imminent threats from criminals, or if a crime is about to be committed.
In cases involving single, or small groups, hoteliers are told to first warn the Home Office. Officials will then carry out a risk assessment before deciding whether to escalate the case. Only then, could the police eventually be told.
For large groups intent on disappearing, it effectively means they are able to vanish – possibly into the clutches of gangs – before the police are aware.
Alp Mehmet, Chair of Migration Watch, warned: “We were recently told the Home Office had lost track of 17,000 asylum applicants. But if this NPCC guidance is to be believed, this number could be an under-estimate.
“In reality, the Home Office have no idea of how man people arriving illegally are going missing.
“This is very worrying”.
Guidance sent to police chiefs stated: “Whilst the current missing person processes of forces may be fit for purpose when an individual or a small group of individuals go missing, this process is often impracticable when large groups of individuals go absent at the same time.
“There have been incidents where hundreds of people have been intercepted by Immigration Enforcement on boats and then placed in multiple hotels in different force areas, only for most of those individuals to go absent within 24 hours.”
Almost 6,000 Channel migrants have vanished after their asylum applications were withdrawn.
The Home Office revealed they are “urgently” trying to “re-establish” contact with 5,598 failed asylum seekers.
Officials believe they are still in the UK and they are among 17,000 asylum seekers whose claims have been withdrawn in the 12 months to September 2023 after they failed to attend appointments or respond to letters from the Home Office.
But police chiefs have warned officers “suspecting that a person has been smuggled into the country will not by itself provide grounds for reporting them as a missing person”.
They added: “Similarly, some migrants who go missing may engage in criminal activity because they have no legitimate means of income.”
And they emphasised to officers: “That does not necessarily provide reasonable ground to believe that the migrant may be a victim of modern slavery.
“That will depend on whether there are any credible indicators of force, threats, or deception used by an organised crime group or individual criminal to control the migrants.
More than 1,000 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year after crossing the Channel.
Home Office figures show more than 300 people made the journey at the weekend, with 112 recorded in two boats on Saturday and 276 on Sunday in five boats.
This takes the provisional total for 2024 to date to 1,057.
The highest number to cross in a single day so far this year was 358 in eight boats on January 17.
Home Secretary James Cleverly said co-operation with Europe, disrupting the supply chain of engines and boats, and “going after the money of these people smugglers”, was proof the Government’s crackdown was working.
The UK has paid France £480m to beef up efforts to stop migrants making the journey starting to pay off as well as the effectiveness of a fast-track returns deal struck with Albania.
But the Immigration Services Union, which represents border staff, said the drop in arrivals was likely to be a “glitch”, with “higher numbers” of Channel crossings expected this year.
Immigration ministers Michael Tomlinson and Tom Pursglove, speaking about the missing asylum seekers, insisted they cannot work legally or access public services such as the NHS.
The pair wrote to the group of MPs after two top Home Office mandarins, Sir Matthew Rycroft and Simon Ridley, suggested they did not know where the 17,000 withdrawn asylum seekers were when they appeared before the committee late last year.
Mr Tomlinson and Mr Pursglove said this was “erroneous” and provided a breakdown of the 17,000.
Some 3,144 had left the UK and another 2,643 had been granted some form of “lawful immigration status” after being initially rejected.
A further 5,931 were still being actively investigated but 5,598 – 32 per cent of the total – were missing.
A Home Office spokesman said: “Our priority is to stop the boats, which is why we have taken robust action to crackdown on vile people smuggling gangs, deter migrants from making dangerous crossings and, alongside our French counterparts, intercept vessels.
“This relentless action reduced crossings by 36% last year, which saw similar weather conditions to 2022, and more than 26,000 attempts were prevented.
“The fact we have seen three devastating fatal incidents in three months highlights the unacceptable risks that migrants and criminal gangs are running in pursuing these dangerous, illegal and unnecessary crossing attempts.”
