Nearly a fifth of lone Albanian child refugees have gone missing in the county, a council has revealed.

Kent County Council (KCC) says it has lost 39 out of 197 unaccompanied children fleeing the Balkan state between January 1 and October 31 this year.

Albanians have accounted for the largest number of people coming in on small boats across the English Channel this year – making up more than 12,000 of the arrivals.

The figures were revealed following a Freedom of Information request by the BBC.

KCC previously said it could no longer take in any more child migrants between June and November 2021 and between August and December 2020.

Each time they said its services were overwhelmed and called on other authorities to take in more children.

A KCC spokesman said: “With the significant increase and recognised vulnerability of Albanian unaccompanied children, safeguarding protocols take place at point of referral.

"Even then it can be very challenging to prevent all children from going missing.

“The protocols involve strategy discussions and child protection investigations with police, Home Office, health and other public authorities to ensure, as best as possible, the child is safeguarded from the risk of exploitation and going missing.

“When the child is located, arrangements are quickly made to establish what has happened to the child and how they can be safeguarded from going missing again."

They added: "Since the significant rise in Albanian unaccompanied children in May 2022, we have convened multiple forums with local and national public authorities to look beyond these established protocols as children continued to arrive and go missing.

“This has helped improve professional understanding and decision-making for these children, which has contributed toward a reduction in the number of children going missing.”

Shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper (Lab), says the Government needs to take action to tackle people trafficking gangs and ensure there are proper child protections in place.

“This is extremely serious,” she said. “Trafficking gangs are bringing children and vulnerable teenagers into the country for exploitation.

“The Home Office clearly doesn’t have a grip on this at all; for so many Albanian children to just disappear like this should have raised major alarm bells in government.

“They must not keep letting the gangs get away with this.”

The Home Office has previously stated that Albania is a “safe and prosperous country” and many nationals “are travelling through multiple countries to make the journey to the UK” before making “spurious asylum claims when they arrive”.

Fewer than 1,000 Albanian offenders have been deported from the UK since a removals agreement was signed last year.

A government spokesperson said: “We take the issue of any child going missing extremely seriously and work closely with local authorities to ensure vulnerable children are supported appropriately.

“Local authorities are responsible for all looked-after children in their area and have a statutory duty to protect children.

"In the concerning occasions when a child goes missing, they operate missing persons protocols with other local agencies, including the police, to establish their whereabouts and that they are safe.”