The number of children who disappear soon after arriving in the UK as asylum seekers has doubled over the past year, raising fears that they are being spirited away by traffickers into domestic servitude, the sex trade or are ending up on the streets, and adding to concerns that local authorities are increasingly unable to cope with the demands being put on them.
More than 900 asylum-seeking children have gone missing in the past five years but since the start of 2015 the rate has risen, according to new figures obtained by the Observer.