An asylum seeker who was arrested on suspicion of raping a boy aged 13 has “gone missing” after being released on bail, an MP has claimed.
Police were called to a hotel in Waltham Forest, east London, last month after reports that a boy had been raped. They arrested a 39-year-old man.
Greg Smith, the Tory MP for Buckingham, claimed in the Commons that the suspect had since gone missing after being released on bail and sent to another hotel. Smith said: “Buckinghamshire council learnt third-hand from a London borough just this morning that an asylum seeker who is under investigation for a very serious offence was transferred to the asylum hotel in Buckingham by the Metropolitan Police but was not escorted into the premises and has since gone missing.” He added: “That process is wholly unacceptable,” and asked for a commitment “that everything possible is being done to apprehend that individual”.
The Times understands the Metropolitan Police would not have been responsible for escorting the man. The Met said: “He is on bail pending further inquiries and must return to the police station on a date in early January. His accommodation status in the interim period is a matter for the Home Office, not the police.”
Police were initially called to the hotel, which was being used to house migrants, on October 5, to reports that a 13-year-old boy had been raped.
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In a separate case, a younger boy claimed he was sexually assaulted at the same hotel a week earlier, and Suella Braverman, the home secretary, was warned by the leader of Waltham Forest council that the safeguarding plan was not sufficient.
Migrants need to get permission from the Home Office if they plan to be away from their authorised accommodation for more than seven straight days and must not be absent for more than 14 days in a six-month period.
The Home Office is using hotels across the country to house migrants while their asylum applications are processed. Kevin Foster, a former Conservative Home Office minister, said it would at least be “common courtesy” for councils and MPs to be informed if migrants were housed in their areas, after many local authorities claimed they had not been told.
The Home office minister Robert Jenrick told him: “One of the issues experienced in recent weeks has been that the sheer number of individuals crossing the Channel has put immense pressure on the Manston facility [in Kent] and the first duty and priority of me, as the minister responsible, was and is to ensure that Manston operates legally and decently and that has meant that we needed to procure a lot of accommodation relatively quickly.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “If someone claiming asylum commits a criminal offence then their bail conditions would be set by the police in the usual way. Their subsequent movements would be dependent on the conditions set, and them abiding by them. The Home Office does not have powers to detain individuals solely because they are on police bail.
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“If an asylum seeker absconds before a decision is made on their asylum claim, or if they fail to comply with our processes, we have a dedicated national absconder tracing team to track them down and bring them back into contact with the Home Office and their claim may be withdrawn. Full security checks are carried out before anyone enters the asylum system.”
