GANGS HAVE kidnapped multiple child-asylum-seekers from a hotel in Brighton as pressure mounts on the Homes Office to find them, according to an investigation.

Vulnerable children being taken off the streets outside the hotel and bundled into cars came to light following explosive details around the scandal by child protection sources and a Home Office whistleblower who works for contractor Mitie.

The whistleblower detailed that an estimated 10% of children were going missing each week after seeing children from a Home Office run hotel in Hythe, Kent being effectively trafficked. 

On the south coast of England, the targeting of helpless children has reportedly become a frequent occurrence. 

Police had already warned Home Office officials that children who had recently arrived in the UK and were seeking asylum would be targeted by criminal networks – many of the vulnerable victims do not have parents or carers. 

The source told The Observer: “Children are literally being picked up from outside the building, disappearing and not being found. They’re being taken from the street by traffickers.”

Over the last 18 months, the troubling case has revealed that around 600 accompanied children have moved through the Sussex hotel.

About 600 unaccompanied children have passed through the Sussex hotel in the past 18 months and a further 136 have been reported missing.

Those that remain unaccounted for amount to 79. 

The devastating figures come after it was unearthed that 222 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children vanished from Home Office run hotels in October last year. 

The Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, told said that the case was “truly appalling and scandalous”.

“Suella Braverman [the home secretary] has failed to act on the repeated warnings she has been given about totally inadequate safeguards for children in their care,” she said.

“It is a total dereliction of duty for the Home Office to so badly fail to protect child safety or crack down on the dangerous gangs putting them in terrible risk. Ministers must urgently put new protection arrangements in place.”

Ms Cooper went on to urge the government to make known the true amount of children that had vanished and what procedures are in place to find them.

However, a Home Office source slammed the reports of vulnerable asylum-seeking children being kidnapped from hotels as “not true”.

Sources added that the children had the option to leave the hotels, but ministers have admitted that they don’t know where the missing children are. 

Some children may have been taken away to Manchester or even Scotland, according to the child protection source. 

The London Metropolitan Police are currently investigating one case.

A Home Office  spokesperson said: “Local authorities have a statutory duty to protect all children, regardless of where they go missing from. In the concerning occasion when a child goes missing, they work closely with other local agencies, including the police, to urgently establish their whereabouts and ensure they are safe.

“We have robust safeguarding procedures in place to ensure all children in our care are as safe and supported as possible as we seek urgent placements with a local authority.”

Brighton and Hove city council added: “We have been actively involved when any child is reported missing and have worked with the police and other agencies to try to trace them.”