by Lynn White
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| Dozens of asylum-seeking children have been kidnapped by gangs from a Brighton [UK] hotel run by the Home Office in a pattern apparently being repeated across the south coast, an Observer investigation can reveal. A whistleblower, who works for Home Office contractor Mitie, and child protection sources describe children being abducted off the street outside the hotel and bundled into cars. “Children are literally being picked up from outside the building, disappearing and not being found. They’re being taken from the street by traffickers,” said the source. —The Observer, January 21, 2023 PHOTO: Hove, where unaccompanied asylum-seeking children have been abducted, according to a contractor working for the Home Office. Credit: Andy Hall/The Observer |
When I was a child
my mother told me
that Never Never Land
Is where the lost children go,
those who can’t find their way home.
My mother told me that
they stay children for ever
and can play all day long.
It sounds like a fairy tale
and perhaps
that’s where these children have gone,
stepped into a fairy tale
or perhaps
they’ve been taken into one
by a monster
straight out of Grimm.
And now they wait.
And there’ll be others
waiting.
Waiting,
for someone to find them.
Perhaps they’ll put up a sign
hoping someone will see.
And they’ll sit by the sign
waiting for rescue,
waiting for the fairy tale ending
that can never come.
Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality and writes hoping to find an audience for her musings. She was shortlisted in the Theatre Cloud 'War Poetry for Today' competition and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and a Rhysling Award. Her poetry has appeared in many publications including Apogee, Firewords, Peach Velvet, Light Journal, and So It Goes.