Home Office accused of ‘dereliction of duty’ over missing asylum-seeking children

Unclear who has legal responsibility for children placed in hotels, after dozens abducted from street in Brighton and Hove

Ministers have been accused of a “dereliction of duty” over their failure to track down 76 asylum-seeking children who have gone missing from a Brighton hotel managed by the Home Office.

The accusation came during a parliamentary debate on Tuesday after an Observer investigation that cited child protection sources and a whistleblower working for a Home Office contractor, who described how youngsters had been abducted off the street outside the Brighton hotel and bundled into cars.