A new report reveals alarming failures across the UK child protection system, with thousands of vulnerable migrant and trafficking-survivor children disappearing from local authority care amid high risks of exploitation.

Almost 2,400 children, including trafficking victims and unaccompanied minors seeking asylum, went missing from local authority care across the United Kingdom last year, according to a new report exposing severe systemic failures in child protection.

The findings, released on Tuesday by child rights organisations ECPAT UK and Missing People, paint a deeply troubling picture: many of these children were already survivors of exploitation, only to disappear again while supposedly under state protection. The report warns that during the period they were missing, the risk of sexual abuse, criminal exploitation, and further trafficking was exceptionally high.

The data, compiled through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to child services departments nationwide, shows that in 2024, local authorities identified 2,638 children as confirmed or suspected victims of human trafficking. Of these, 864 children — 37% — went missing over the year.

Among 12,530 unaccompanied children in care, 1,501 (13%) disappeared — a 2% increase compared to the previous year. Despite a decade of warnings from NGOs about heightened risks facing trafficked and unaccompanied children, the report concludes that protective mechanisms remain dangerously inadequate.Jane Hunter, Director of Research and Impact at Missing People, said the findings highlight a “severe and ongoing failure” of the system to keep vulnerable children safe.

“The alarming rate at which trafficked and unaccompanied children go missing from care proves that protection mechanisms often do not work,” Hunter said.“Every child deserves to feel safe, yet this report shows the system is repeatedly failing them.”

Hunter called for structural reforms, urging the government to provide suitable accommodation for trafficked and unaccompanied children and to improve awareness of the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) — the UK’s official framework for identifying and supporting trafficking victims.ECPAT UK Policy Director Laura Durán stressed that the children behind these statistics are survivors of profound trauma.

“These children are not numbers; they are individuals who have already endured unimaginable harm. When they go missing from care, they face even greater risks,” she said, calling for stronger safeguards and policies that do not deepen children’s vulnerability.

The report also warns that the UK’s “unsafe and uncertain” immigration system can worsen the situation. Past research has shown that children who fear deportation or lack clarity about their right to remain are more likely to abscond, increasing the likelihood of exploitation.Additionally, not all local authorities provided full data, suggesting that the true number of missing children may be even higher.

A government spokesperson acknowledged long-standing shortcomings in the child protection system, saying the current administration inherited a structure “failing to meet the needs of the country’s most vulnerable children.”

The spokesperson said the upcoming Children’s Welfare and Schools Bill is intended to deliver the most significant transformation to children’s social care “in a generation,” including expanded care placements, improved information-sharing between agencies, creation of multi-agency child protection teams in each region, and mandatory safeguarding responsibilities for schools and care institutions.These reforms, the government claims, aim to ensure that no child “falls through the cracks” of the system again.(ILKHA)