The Children's Commissioner for England has written to every local authority urging them to do more to support unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
Anne Longfield was moved to act after seeing first hand the "squalid, dangerous, shanty-town like conditions" that 600 children are living in during a recent visit to the Calais "Jungle" refugee camp.
Humanitarian agencies estimate there are 80,000 migrant children travelling alone to Europe from war-torn areas of the Middle East. Most will seek asylum in mainland European countries, but a small proportion head to Calais in an attempt to enter the UK illegally.
Some are successful - latest data shows there were 3,472 asylum applications from unaccompanied children in the UK in the year ending June 2016 - a 54 per cent rise from June 2015.
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