A “massive search” for British teenager Jay Slater will get under way in Tenerife today, almost two weeks after the apprentice bricklayer went missing.

The Civil Guard said they would step up their search for the 19-year-old after appealing for volunteer associations, such as firefighters, and individual volunteers with experience in navigating difficult terrain to help them.

Police and volunteers will begin their search at 9am in the village of Masca, near Mr Slater‘s last-known location, and attempt to retrace his last-known steps.

In a statement, police said: “The massive search will be carried out on Saturday, 29 June from 9am.

“Bearing in mind that this is an abrupt, rocky area, full of unevenness and with a multitude of ravines, paths and roads, the collaboration of all those associations of volunteers who can help in this raid that is intended to be carried out in a directed and coordinated manner is requested.”

Sky’s North of England correspondent Shingi Mararike in Tenerife said the search “is perhaps a final push from the Civil Guard to make some kind of headway”.

Mr Slater, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, disappeared after trying to walk back to his accommodation after missing a bus on Monday last week.

He was last pictured at Papayago, the nightclub hosting the end of the New Rave Generation festival, late on 16 June.

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Slater seen by cafe owner

After the event ended, he got in a car with two men, travelling to a small Airbnb in Masca, where a local cafe owner told Sky News he tried to catch a bus back to Los Cristianos, where he was staying.

Ofelia Medina Hernandez said she saw him at 8am on 17 June, and added: “He asked twice what time the bus came.

“He came back and he asked me again, and I told him again, at 10 o’clock. Later I got in my car, and I saw him, he was walking quickly, but I didn’t see him again after that.”

She said he was walking in the wrong direction.

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Last phone call

It comes after one of Mr Slater’s friends told ITV’s This Morning about his last video call with the 19-year-old.

Brad Hargreaves said he saw the missing teenager’s feet slide on rocks during a call at around 8.30am, saying that is how he knew Mr Slater was not on a road.

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He then said Mr Slater went down a “little drop” in one of his last video calls, and added: “He said, ‘look where I am’.

“He didn’t seem concerned on the phone until we knew how far away he was. I said, ‘put your location on’. He said: ’15-minute drive, 14-hour walk’.

“I don’t know if it’s accurate or not so I said to him: ‘It’s only a 15-minute drive, get a taxi’.”

Search teams coordinated by the Civil Guard have since mounted a huge manhunt using helicopters, drones and search dogs to scour mountainous areas of the island, but are yet to find the teenager.

In a corner of Tenerife, a winding, narrow road takes you towards a small village called Masca. At points on the route, the view of the sea below and the mountains above is breathtaking.

This place, with its handful of houses and cafes, nestled among ravines and rockfaces, is about a 40-minute drive from the parts of the island most British tourists know, but it might as well be a world away.

There isn’t the bustle of the resort towns in the south, with their clubs and bars. Instead, there are vast expanses of land that are arid and difficult to traverse on foot.

In the 13 days since the disappearance of Jay Slater, a 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer from Lancashire, the hikers and tourists who come to Masca have been joined by two more groups of people.

The first are the emergency services, including the civil guard, volunteer firefighters and mountain rescue teams carrying out the so-far unsuccessful search for Jay. The second group are journalists like me, trying to understand a case shrouded in speculation and questions.

Jay’s journey

Those questions begin with Jay’s journey which started at Papayago, the nightclub where he was last pictured enjoying the end of the New Rave Generation (NRG) festival late on 16 June.

The club is in Playa De Las Americas, not too far from Los Cristianos where he was staying. Full of British revellers and near the beach, the strip is an area Jay would have been growing familiar with, having been at the festival for two days.

But on the event’s third and final night, instead of going back to the accommodation he was sharing with friends, Jay jumped in a car with two men, travelling to a small Airbnb in Masca.

This is where the information about his movements and whereabouts begins to thin, aside from the testimony of one eyewitness we met on our first full day in Tenerife.

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Ofelia Medina Hernandez runs a cafe above the Airbnb and says she saw Jay at about 8am on 17 June.

“He asked twice what time the bus came,” she told us. “He came back and he asked me again, and I told him again, at 10 o’clock.

“Later I got in my car, and I saw him, he was walking quickly, but I didn’t see him again after that,” she added.

Despite the door to the Airbnb being just yards from a bus stop which would have taken him back down south, Medina Hernandez described Jay walking in the wrong direction.

Another key component of the timeline is a conversation Jay had with a friend on the phone at around 8.30am that day. He told them he was walking back after missing a bus – a journey that would take 11 hours on foot.

He also said he was lost, in need of water, and only had 1% charge on his phone.

His phone is believed to have been last located near an observatory around an 18-minute walk away, which is where the efforts of the emergency services were focused in the first week.

The search

That visible flurry of activity included emergency services using a helicopter, drones and sniffer dogs.

However, as the days went on, that sprawling search became a more tightly focused one, with smaller groups of officers looking at pockets of land, like ravines and caves.

Despite allowing us to film them at a distance, the teams, led by the civil guard, have refused to give much guidance on the ground, instead choosing to release updates and footage via WhatsApp.

With no news conference or formal interviews on offer, they’ve largely kept journalists in the dark.

‘I just want him back’

One group who are hoping for information and updates more than anyone else are Jay’s loved ones.

A small group of his friends and family have stayed in Tenerife, clearly struggling to come to terms with the void left by his absence and the prospect he might not return.

On the first Saturday after his disappearance, we met his dad Warren and brother Zak for the first time and their anguish was clear.

Speaking to us near Masca, after trying to retrace Jay’s steps, Warren said he was “just hoping that somebody has helped him off this mountain”.

“That’s all I want, that somebody has helped him get off this mountain. I just want him back and that’s it. He’s, my son.”

His voice then cracked and he walked away from the camera and repeated: “I just want him back and that’s it.”

Despite his visible pain, Warren has also to push this search forward in his own way. Two days later in the town of Santiago Del Teide, we meet him again.

Read more:
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That afternoon he was tearful again – but determined, handing out flyers with a small group of friends.

Their reason for choosing the town, which is 7km away from Masca, was because of a grainy CCTV image that suggested Jay was last seen in the town’s square.

Online speculation

The family hinging so much hope on that information was an insight into how this case isn’t just about what’s happening on the ground, but also the narrative online.

A Facebook group called Jay Slater Missing – Only Official Group reached more than 500,000 members in less than a week and was inundated with speculation around the case, before comments in the group were restricted.

The noise on social media, coupled with the situation, have added to his family’s distress, something his mother Debbie Duncan who is also in Tenerife, alluded to in a statement.

“I have every faith in them down on the ground and the amazing searches they are carrying out along with more amazing guys up there,” she said.

“As a family we are in a living nightmare. We have no further updates other than Jay is still missing and we are just ignoring the social media side of things.”

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It’s clear though that social media has not only hurt the family, they also feel it’s helped them too, a point Debbie made when specifically thanking Paul Arnott.

A hiker from Bedfordshire, he has travelled from Fort William in Scotland to Spain and promised to stay however long it takes to find the teenager.

Never too far from the police search, Paul has been scrambling down ridges and climbing hills on his own while regularly updating his followers in TikTok.

Away from the small screen is the reality of the situation, as the search for Jay enters its 13th day.

It’s a period that promises to be pivotal, with the Spanish Civil Guard calling on volunteer agencies such as Civil Protection and firefighters, as well as “individual volunteers who are experts in rugged search terrain”.

In a case that has seen every twist and turn followed in places well beyond the rugged terrain of North West Tenerife, today feels like the beginning of one last push to try to find Jay Slater.

It’s an icy cold December morning outside a Travelodge in Enfield, north London, when we first meet Nedret Batir.

She’s wearing a T-shirt, but seems oblivious to the temperature – only consumed with her obvious and immediate distress.

Everything she owns, along with her two daughters’ possessions, are packed up into suitcases in the corridor of the hotel.

She has just been evicted from her room and is now officially homeless.

There are dark circles under her eyes, and she looks pale, as she calls the council’s housing department.

She tells them she doesn’t know where she’ll sleep tonight, along with her girls, aged 11 and seven.

The man on the phone reassures her that they are looking for alternative accommodation and that she will have to wait.

But the panic is written all over her face. The clock is ticking.

“But I don’t have no place to leave my luggage,” she says, “because I have to go and pick up my children from school”.

The caseworker simply replies: “Yeah, that’s not my concern.”

‘Social cleansing’

Hers is a tale of desperation that has become normalised in England – but with a difference.

She has fallen victim to an out-of-area policy in place in this borough, and apparently across others in the capital, that moves families hours away from everything they know.

If two offers of accommodation are rejected, families are being told they are making themselves “intentionally homeless”.

And that is exactly what has happened to Nedret.

She has rejected a rental property in Hartlepool, five hours away from London. As a result, they have told her that they will be ending their duty to house her.

“I can’t take it anymore,” she tells me sobbing, “I don’t know what to do.”

She says she cannot tear her children away from where their father lives, where they go to school, and where she has support.

But the Enfield policy is written clearly, in an email, stating: “We will be finding homes for homeless families in parts of the country that are affordable to people on low incomes.

“The homes we offer will usually be a long way from Enfield, and outside southeast England.”

Housing campaigner Kwajo Tweneboa calls it “social cleansing”.

I show him the emails, the policy, the wording that is causing sleepless nights across the area, and probably the capital.

“It’s only affecting a certain group, those from low incomes,” he adds.

“Basically if you’re poor, get out. I’ve never seen it so, like in black and white. That is not what housing should be in the sixth richest economy in the world.”

Sky News has investigated and discovered that this is not just happening in London, it’s across the whole of England.

In every region, there has been a rise in the number of families with children being moved “out of area” into temporary accommodation.

Overall that figure has gone up in recent years by almost a quarter, according to our freedom of information requests.

‘I don’t have anybody here’

Abdullah Ahadi is already experiencing it first-hand, along with the isolation that being sent hours away can bring.

It’s 4.30am on a pitch-black March morning when we knock on his door in Corby, Northamptonshire.

He opens it, balancing on a walking stick, having been diagnosed with muscular dystrophy.

It’s silent on the estate, a warren of brick homes, and his is the only one with a light on inside.

He is being temporarily housed here with his wife and four children – who were born in London and grew up in Harrow, in the northwest of the capital.

Abdullah said: “They told me if you don’t accept this house, we will take your name from the list which says you need a house [so] I have no choice.”

But it means he must get up before dawn, to drive his children to school in Harrow, for what often becomes an eight-hour round trip.

As everyone piles into his car, he describes the loneliness.

“I don’t have anybody here. I worry about my kids. At the weekend they just stay inside the home.

As his six-year-old triplets, two boys and one girl, fall asleep – Abdullah’s 10-year-old daughter, Laaibah, describes the exhaustion of waking up so early.

“You can tell from my voice,” she says.

Articulate and softly spoken, she says she misses her friends, but admits she hasn’t told them about her living situation.

“They just know that I live far away.”

She also describes how she feels “different from people” in Corby.

“There’s not much Muslims there so every time I walk past, most people stare at me because of my hijab.”

It also weighs heavy on Abdullah’s mind that his condition is deteriorating – his muscles are “wasting day by day”.

He says: “If something happens to me, who is coming here to take care of the children? We have a lot of support from family and friends in London.”

I ask why he doesn’t move his children to a new school in Corby.

He replies that he doesn’t know how long the family will be there, as it’s supposed to be temporary.

And that hits at the heart of this. School is the only constant in these families’ lives, and they cling to it.

‘I just want to give up’

Nedret and her daughters are the same.

They have now been moved to Ilford, another hotel room; still in London – but a two to three-hour bus journey to their school.

Ebru, 10, says she is struggling to do her homework in a cramped room, and getting up early to do the commute is taking it out of her.

I tell her that her mother has described her as “brave”, and ask her if she feels it.

She replies: “Yes and no. At one point I do, and at one point I don’t, I just want to give up.”

Her sister Eda is also extremely tired.

By the time we reach their school, because of terrible traffic, and missing another bus, it is nearing 11am, or, as Eda says, “nearly playtime”.

None of these families, on low incomes, can find affordable private rentals, even when they do – it’s hard to act fast enough to secure them, such is the market.

A leaflet from Enfield Council explains the “severe shortage of accommodation for private rent” in London and the region.

It describes how it “is especially hard to find affordable homes for people on benefits or a low income”.

Local Housing Allowance rates and rents elsewhere are apparently “more closely aligned and so are affordable for residents”.

Eventually, six months after they first moved to Corby, Abdullah’s family is brought back to London, to Hounslow in the west of the capital.

With his condition, driving more than an hour to school one way is still taking its toll, but life is much better being closer to support.

But it’s temporary. And that’s the thing. At any point, they could be moved on.

Laaibah looks less tired when I meet her at the new “emergency accommodation”, a light and airy house under Heathrow Airport‘s flight path.

She is worried about where they will be moved to next.

“If I make friends here it will be temporary and if I move you never know if people are going to be rude to me, and it is just going to feel bad if you are lonely. If I move school it is going to be really hard to make friends,” she says.

Hunger and exhaustion

Seven months after Nedret was moved from Enfield to Ilford, we meet her in the same hotel room. Nothing, for her, has changed since the start of the year.

She says she has been spending money on taxis to school, and two buses back, and has run out.

“I can’t take my kids to school, I can’t buy them any food, my credit cards are full.”

Despite the school suggesting they move closer, Nedret says there are no spaces.

At one point she suggests to me she even regrets not accepting the original Hartlepool offer.

Ebru, meanwhile, looks exhausted too – describing the family’s hunger.

“When I’m in bed sometimes me and [my sister] can’t sleep because we’re starving and my mum can’t do anything.”

Her school attendance has also dropped to 51%.

“I can’t do anything about it”, Ebru tells me, looking upset.

She now sees a therapist but says they “just give me kind words, she’s telling me: ‘You’ll get through this’. But I don’t think so. I don’t think so at all”.

Unfortunately, no matter where they are sent the rental market will continue to be volatile – and increasingly inaccessible to the poorest.

Temporary accommodation alone is not the answer to Britain’s housing crisis.

Harrow Council said: “While we can’t comment on individual cases, we understand the stress and uncertainty that comes with the threat of homelessness or the increasing number of families that have become homeless.

“That’s why we ensure the support is there including financial assistance to secure their own accommodation in the private rented sector. We are facing unprecedented demand and currently supporting over 4,000 families a year who are under the threat of becoming homeless, and over 1,200 households in temporary accommodation.

“Like many local authorities we have a high demand for social housing and a shortage of temporary accommodation. Harrow has one the lowest stocks of social housing in London.

“When we can we look to offer accommodation within, or as close as possible to Harrow. However average rents in Harrow have increased by over 10.5% in just the last 12 months so this has made it even harder for families and the council to find affordable accommodation which is suitable for households who approach seeking our help.

“It is also hard to find emergency accommodation in neighbouring boroughs for the same reasons.

“We do everything we can to find the most suitable homes for those in need of temporary accommodation, prioritising those with the most urgent need. Where we can’t offer something within the borough, we ensure that accommodation outside of the borough is suitable and meets their needs.”

An Enfield Council spokesperson said: “Despite extremely challenging financial conditions, we continue to do all we can to invest in Enfield to deliver positive outcomes for our residents. However, like many London boroughs, we are seeing a number of acute challenges including a shortage of social and affordable homes to rent.

“In line with other councils, we have moved to a national placement policy as a result of the extreme shortage of accommodation in London and the South East. Our priority is to find a suitable, permanent home for families as long-term hotel accommodation is neither appropriate, nor affordable.

“Hotel accommodation is incredibly costly and is damaging to the health and wellbeing of families which is why we must find alternative, suitable options. Given the dwindling supply of housing which is not set to improve in the near future, residents have been advised to be ready at short notice when a placement becomes available.

“Increasing numbers of families are turning to councils for temporary accommodation and financial support as homelessness reaches record highs. The scale of homelessness and impact on councils’ budgets mean we must manage these pressures whilst ensuring that homeless families are provided with appropriate housing, rather than unsuitable hotel accommodation.”

This is a special report in Faultlines, a Sky News series that aims to explore some of the biggest issues facing Britain ahead of the general election.

You can watch Adele Robinson’s full report today at 10.30am, 12.30pm, 2.30pm, 4.30pm, 6.30pm and 8.30pm on Sky News or on YouTube.