'Asylum-seeking children still being sent to Hove hotel'

Hove labour councillor Bella Sankey said she was "horrified" to learn that asylum-seeking children are still being sent to a hotel in Hove which has become the centre of a scandal after dozens of children went missing.

There are fears these children have been coerced into crime or abducted.

They were outside Hove Town Hall (Image: Andrew Gardner / The Argus)

Demonstrators were outside the full council meeting in Hove Town Hall yesterday to demand the government take action both nationally and locally to prevent more children going missing, and launch an investigation into the disappearances.

Cllr Sankey revealed that children were still being sent to the hotel in Hove.

"I was horrified to learn last week, as we were making headlines internationally, our home secretary Suella Braverman was transferring more children to this hotel in Hove.

"This is a scandal." she said.

"The labour group has called an emergency council meeting to discuss this disaster as soon as possible.

"There must also be an independent, high-level inquiry to establish accountability.

"We must not rest until every single one of these children is found."

Parents and children alike joined the protest (Image: Andrew Gardner / The Argus)

Cllr Sankey said she was "heartened and uplifted" to see the dozens of protesters "standing outside the local authority to demand action and accountability".

The asylum-seeking children are placed in the hotel by the Home Office, who have housed asylum seekers in the city since July 2021.

Many of these children have arrived in the country unaccompanied, having made the journey across the channel in boats.

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She added: "What is continuing to happen in our community is utterly horrifying. These children have been let down by the authorities that are charged with protecting them and caring for them.

"Unsurprisingly, these children have been turned into targets for serious organised crime.

"In total, over five classrooms of children have gone missing from our city in 18 months. 

"This is an unprecedented breakdown of child safety in the modern age."

In the last 18 months, 137 children have disappeared, with 76 still missing.

Sussex Police said two men were arrested last year after two children, believed to be housed at one of these hotels, were reported to have got into a car.

Wish ward councillor Bella Sankey (Image: Brighton and Hove Labour)

She added: "But we know that some of those children have been arrested for offences which really bear the hallmark of being trafficked, and exploited.

"One child is too many, and as Peter Kyle said so eloquently and so passionately in parliament, if it was any of our children, then the world would stop.

"The world must stop for these children too."