Teenage boys seeking asylum in the UK are being housed in a hotel where children have gone missing, the council has revealed.

Residents of the hotel are boys aged 16 and 17 seeking asylum in the UK, with more than 1,500 children moved through the hotel since July 2021 and transferred to local authorities across the country through the National Transfer Scheme.

Some 76 children are still missing from the hotel, Sussex Police confirmed.

In a letter to immigration minister Robert Jenrick, Brighton and Hove City Council leader Phelim Mac Cafferty and deputy leader Hannah Allbrooke called for the Home Office to end the use of hotel accommodation to house unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in the city and across the country.

They said: “Many residents of Brighton and Hove are concerned about the welfare of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children who are being housed by the Home Office in hotels across the country.

“We share their deep concern and worry about the hotels which were established by the Home Office without consultation or consent from communities.”

Cllrs Mac Cafferty and Allbrooke accused the Home Office of an “overt attempt to shift responsibility” and accused the department of “failing to put the needs of children first”.

“The department has failed in its duty of care to these children and young people”, the councillors said.

The Brighton and Hove children’s safeguarding partnership will conduct a review into the multi-agency response to safeguarding issues in the hotel, with the council calling for the Home Office to make officials available to be part of the review.

Labour councillors have called for an emergency council meeting and for an independent inquiry to take place into the situation.

House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt conceded in Parliament yesterday it is “very hard” to protect vulnerable asylum seekers in hotels and that the government has to address the issue “swiftly”.

She said: “We’ve had stories of gangmasters turning up at hotels that they now asylum seekers are staying at, taking people away. It is for very obvious reasons very hard to protect people in that kind of environment, so we have to address this.

“This is a serious matter; people need protecting and we must do so swiftly.”