Glasgow could be asked to take more than 75 unaccompanied asylum seeker children presently living in the south of England.

But city council bosses have warned they will struggle to cope given the present rules for looked after children.

Instead they are in talks about changing the rules to allow the youngsters to live with local families.

A report to councillors says the city has a long history of supporting young, unaccompanied asylum seekers who have arrived in the city and nine years ago, a specialist team was set up to work with them.

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Unaccompanied young people are mainly males claiming to be aged between 14 and 16-years-old.

But the report says: "In our experience, 60% of young people who present seeking asylum in Glasgow claim to be younger than we or the Home Office believe them to be.

"The most common countries of origin are Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, China and Vietnam and young people are almost exclusively trafficked.

"Currently our specialist social work team in Glasgow is working with 99 young people ranging in age from 14 to 21 with placements across residential, foster care, supported accommodation and individual tenancies."

Young asylum seekers arriving in the city are regarded as looked after meaning the council has to carry out a full assessment, checks and registration of individuals and organisations.

But the report says: "The level of funding currently proposed will not cover the actual costs incurred by local authorities.

"It will be important to ensure Glasgow continues to participate in the national discussions on how Scotland may respond to the challenges of providing support to an increased number of young unaccompanied asylum seeking children.

"Based on or experience to date, we could not respond effectively to the numbers envisaged by the Home Office."

In a bid to get round the problem, the council has been in talks with the Scottish Government and the Care Inspectorate about changing the rules.

The report says: "At this stage, the thinking is we would approach communities through the faith based groups to gauge interest in families offering accommodation and support to a young person undertaking an assessment of suitability.

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"There would be a process to screen and match young people to families with on-going support.

"The Home Office funding would be used to provide an allowance to families offering accommodation."