Home Office faces legal action over children missing from UK asylum hotels

People in a smuggler's boat leave Gravelines, France, in an attempt to cross the Channel. Photograph: Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP/Getty Images

Placing unaccompanied children in hotels run by the Home Office is “unlawful”, according to a legal action launched after hundreds of youngsters living in them have gone missing.

Launched on Monday by the charity ECPAT UK, the legal action argues that the Home Office has “no authority” to place unaccompanied children in asylum hotels, from where scores have been kidnapped by gangs.