Stockport MP claims councils are unintentionally acting as 'recruiting sergeants' for drug gangs
Ann Coffey says vulnerable young people are being targeted when they're sent to children's homes miles away from their local area.
It's claimed local authorities across the UK are unintentionally helping drug traffickers to recruit vulnerable children by sending them to live miles away from home.
An inquiry, chaired by Stockport MP Ann Coffey, has found that kids are being placed in "grave danger'' by the professionals who should protect them.
The All Party Parliamentary Group for Runaway and Missing Children and Adults heard evidence that thousands of children are being moved to children's homes up to 100 miles from where they live - becoming isolated from friends, family and social workers - rather than being placed in their home local authority areas.
Coffey claims the "sent away generation'' can become magnets for paedophiles and so-called county lines gangs, while councils may inadvertently open new county lines by relocating those already groomed to sell heroin and crack cocaine.
Independent Group for Change MP Ann Coffey, chairwoman of the APPG, said: "It is a national scandal that local authorities are unwittingly becoming recruiting sergeants for county lines drugs gangs by sending so many children miles away. It must stop.
"Children are being systematically failed and placed in grave danger by the very professionals who are there to protect them.
"By placing so many children out of area, councils are complicit in adding to the trauma of already neglected and abused children.
"Our inquiry has shone a light into the shady twilight world of unregulated accommodation for children aged 16 and over, who become magnets for paedophiles and county lines drugs gangs. This accommodation must be regulated and inspected.''
Mark Russell, chief executive of the Children's Society, said: Our enquiry heard some truly shocking examples of the trauma and risk experienced by children placed out of area. It should be a wake-up call for urgent action at both the national and local level.
"These children are some of the most vulnerable in society, it is vital their needs are put at the centre of all decisions about their placement.
"No looked after child should be placed simply because that is where a bed is free, instead of that is where the child is most likely to receive the care, support and sense of belonging they deserve.
"We are calling on the Government to put in place an action plan and give councils more funding to ensure that there is a sufficient number of good quality, regulated and inspected care placements where children need them.
"Only then can we stop this epidemic of children being sent away, left feeling isolated and exposed to high risk.'