Over the past five years, nearly 30,000 boys have made their way into the UK alone, seeking asylum and sparking concerns about their fate once they reach British soil.

Typically, these young asylum seekers are placed in homes funded by taxpayers, with local authorities assuming legal responsibility for their care upon arrival. However, campaigners have raised alarms that many of these boys might be misrepresenting their age, claiming to be younger than 18, or disappearing without a trace.

This significant influx is straining Britain’s social care system. As of March 2025, England was home to 6,540 unaccompanied child asylum seekers (UASCs), the vast majority being boys aged 16 or older, accounting for 5,880 of these cases.

The financial burden of housing these children is considerable, with costs amounting to £143 per child each night. Last year alone, England spent approximately £935,220 on their accommodation. Most of these boys are initially housed in Dover, their point of arrival, but Kent County Council has expressed that they are under ‘immense pressure’ and should not face financial deficits for meeting their statutory obligations.

In an effort to alleviate Kent’s burden, the government provides financial incentives to encourage other local authorities to accommodate these young asylum seekers, with cities like Manchester, Liverpool, and Telford becoming key destinations.

Between April 2020 and March 2025, a staggering 29,570 lone asylum-seeking boys were placed into care in the UK, dwarfing the 1,640 girls in similar situations, as reported by the Department of Education.

Earlier this month, two Afghan teenage boys, both 17, were jailed for abducting and raping a 15-year-old schoolgirl in Leamington Spa, Warwick, just months after arriving in Dover on small boats as unaccompanied minors.

Jan Jahanzeb and Israr Niazal were living in nearby taxpayer-funded accommodation at the time of the horrific attack, but now both face the threat of deportation.

The judge said the pair had ‘betrayed’ those who come to Britain and observe the laws of this country, while neighbours living next to the properties they listed in court documents were disgusted at the idea of living next to the sex attackers.

The trial heard that the teenagers came to the UK as unaccompanied minors and attacked the vulnerable girl on May 10.

Jahanzeb fled Afghanistan and underwent an age assessment after arriving in the UK in January, having documented his journey through Europe on TikTok. His co-defendant, Niazal, arrived in November 2024 and was initially housed in Kent before being moved into care in the Warwickshire area.

When the Mail visited the address which Jahanzeb gave, a support worker opened the doors to a semi-detached home with a spacious drive-way run by Raisso House –  a company which ‘provides supported living placements for young people aged 16 to 21’.

The support worker would not confirm whether she knew Jahanzeb but neighbours were left shocked at the idea of a rapist living next door to them.

One said: ‘It’s always been a bid dodgy. It’s horrible to know that someone like that would be living next door.’

Another appeared repulsed at the idea of living next to the sex attacker and fumed: ‘It is not fair that the taxpayer pays for these children to live in our neighbourhoods and this is how they behave. It’s disgusting.’ 

They believed the property used to be operated as an Airbnb but children have regularly started coming and going for over a year.

‘It used to be an Airbnb but then it became a children’s home. You get kids turning up all the time, a new kid went in there two days ago.

‘They sometimes turn up in flash cars, I saw a Lamborghini turn up.’

There was a large office in the front room, while a staircase appeared to led up to bedrooms. 

The address Niazal listed in court was on an eclectic street made up of HMOs, student homes and couples living in privately run properties. It was a nine-bedroom terraced house that was sold for £330,000 last year. 

The current occupant of Niazal’s address slammed the door shut when the Mail started asking questions about the rapist.

Jahanzeb and Niazal are part of the thousands of UASCs who come to Britain each year. 

Local authorities across England say they are facing an unprecedented demand of child asylum seekers, who must legally be put into their care until they turn 18 under the Children Act 1989.

Department of Education figures show 6,540 UASCs aged under 18 had to be put into council care across England in 2025 after arriving on UK soil without an adult.

The Home Office shells out £143 per night for local councils to house these children in taxpayer-funded accommodation.

That means the total bill to house 6,450 UASCs last year was £935,220 – equivalent to £2,562 per day. The year before, £1.063million was spent on housing 7,440 UASCs – meaning over the last two years, £1.999million has been spent. 

The number of child asylum seekers coming to Britain has dramatically increased over the last few years.

In 2021, there were 4,150, rising to 5,670 (2022), 7,410 (2023) and 7,440 (2024). In 2025, however, the number did drop to 6,540.

In every year, there were significantly more boys than girls making the trip to the UK and being put into care – most of whom were 16 or 17.

In 2025, some 3,650 were placed in independent and semi-independent accommodation, 2,460 were in foster homes, 350 in ‘other placements’ and 70 in children’s homes.

Children arriving on small boats typically arrive in Dover and Kent County Council said earlier this year that it had ‘almost reached capacity’ after a surge of arrivals in December 2024.

In 2025, 451 child migrants were being cared for in Kent, with Manchester (167) and Liverpool (124) housing the next highest.

The Home Office says it is working with local authorities to support them, but the Local Government Association has called for more funding.

Kent County Council is required to look after the lone children when they arrive in small boats in Dover, but the National Transfer Scheme was set up to ensure a ‘fairer’, more equitable distribution’ of children across the country.

Additional funding is offered to local authorities who participate in the scheme in a bid to incentivise them. There is £10,000 awarded if a transfer takes place within two working days, and £5,000 if within five working days. 

The entry local authority is responsible for the cost of transporting the child to their new location. 

As a receiving authority, the council is responsible for caring for these children until they turn 18.

But the number of asylum seekers falsely claiming to be children has quadrupled in the past decade. Home Office statistics show the number of asylum seekers found to be lying about being under 18 was 224 in 2014 but has now spiralled to more than 1,000 as record numbers now pretend to be minors.

Campaigners warn that many arrivals destroy their identification documents before reaching Britain in a desperate attempt to cheat the system.

Linden Kemkaren, leader of Kent County Council (KCC), has warned that funding UASCs when they turn 18 is ‘woefully inadequate’.

‘The government’s continued prolonged delays in processing their asylum claims mean that Kent, and other UK local authorities, are still shouldering the burden of fully supporting them until a determination is made,’ the Reform council leader said.

‘KCC’s Children’s Services are under immense pressure due to our geographical location and having to receive and process UASC. 

‘In an ideal world, the government would find a solution to stop UASC arriving on our shores by small boat. Until then, the very least we should expect is to not be out of pocket for fulfilling our statutory duties.’

Charities have voiced major concerns over the amount of children who go missing from UK councils’ care.

Last month, The Guardian revealed how 1,501 lone child asylum seekers in council care across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland were reported missing last year.

Out of another 2,335 identified as having been trafficked or suspected of having been trafficked, 864 were reported missing. 

Patricia Durr, the chief executive of Every Child Protected Against Trafficking UK, said: ‘This report highlights the risk trafficked and unaccompanied children face. It remains challenging to understand why these children continue to be failed. They are consistently let down by the systems meant to support them, whilst being punished by policies that exacerbate the problem and used by a political rhetoric that seeks to create division.’ 

The stark revelations come after a damning report found the Home Office has no idea how many asylum seekers have gone missing since arriving in this country.

The National Audit Office’s withering verdict will raise yet more questions about Labour’s handling of the crisis, just weeks after a separate report blasted the same ‘incompetent’ department for ‘squandering’ billions on asylum hotels. 

The December 10 report found the asylum system cost the taxpayer a staggering £4.9billion in 2024-25, mostly on providing taxpayer-funded migrant hotels and other accommodation.

But even this figure excluded major sums, such as legal aid for asylum seekers’ lawyers and the costs borne by local councils when they take over responsibility for supporting successful claimants – which suggests the true figure could be much higher.

In its report, the official spending watchdog warned: ‘We found several examples of data that could help the Government better understand outcomes within the asylum system that were not routinely being collected, or which they could not provide.

‘For example the Home Office did not hold complete data on the number who absconded from the asylum system.’

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said it showed ‘the Home Office is likely to have lost track of thousands of illegal immigrants who have claimed asylum’.

Other gaps in official figures include a lack of data on how many failed asylum seekers face deportation or other enforcement.

The Home Office was also unable to state the number of unsuccessful deportation attempts it had made, or why they failed. The Ministry of Justice did not have data on the number of asylum seekers who bring repeated appeals or the total cases received by the Upper Immigration Tribunal, which hears appeals against failed asylum claims.

The NAO compiled the report after tracking 5,000 asylum claims lodged in January 2023 through the system for 32 months.

By this September, only 452 of the total, or 9 per cent, had been deported, representing ‘just 18 per cent of all people with refused or invalid claims’, the report said.

Just under 35 per cent – 1,725 cases – had been granted asylum or another type of leave to remain in Britain.

A further 56 per cent of cases had not concluded. This included 41 per cent which were effectively in ‘limbo’, with their cases not being progressed by the Home Office. 

A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘The Home Secretary has announced the most sweeping reforms to tackle illegal migration in modern times which will make Britain a less attractive destination for illegal migrants and will make it easier to remove and deport them.

‘We provide additional funding to help local councils meet the costs of caring for unaccompanied asylum seeking children.

‘All Foreign National Offenders who receive a prison sentence in the UK are referred for deportation at the earliest opportunity.’