The “systemic and routine” housing of unaccompanied child asylum seekers in hotels is unlawful, the High Court has ruled.
In a stinging judgement issued against the Home Office on Thursday, Mr. Justice Chamberlain said its ongoing use of hotels for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children should “be used on very short periods in true emergency situations”.
In a 55-page judgement, Mr. Chamberlain said Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s hotel provision to immigrant minors “exceeded the proper limits of her powers and was unlawful.”
He added: “There is a range of options open to the home secretary to ensure that unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are accommodated and looked after as envisaged by Parliament.
“It is for her to decide how to do so.”
The senior judge made the ruling after legal action brought by the charity Every Child Protected Against Trafficking (ECPAT) against the Home Office over the practice, claiming the arrangements are “not fit for purpose.”
ECPAT’s bid was heard in London alongside similar claims brought by Brighton and Hove City Council and Kent County Council against the department.
The Home Office and Department for Education had opposed the legal challenges and said that the hotel use was lawful but was “deployed effectively as a ‘safety net’ and as a matter of necessity.”
‘Lost and Endangered’
“In ceasing to accept responsibility for some newly-arriving unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, while continuing to accept other children into its care, Kent County Council chose to treat some unaccompanied asylum-seeking children differently from and less favourably than other children, because of their status as asylum seekers,” Mr. Chamberlain told the court.Referring to the Home Office hotel practice, he said: “It cannot be used systematically or routinely in circumstances where it is intended, or functions in practice, as a substitute for local authority care.
“From December 2021 at the latest, the practice of accommodating children in hotels, outside local authority care, was both systematic and routine and had become an established part of the procedure for dealing with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
“From that point on, the home secretary’s provision of hotel accommodation for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children exceeded the proper limits of her powers and was unlawful.
The court heard that at the time of the hearing in the claims earlier this month, 154 children remained missing from the hotels, including a 12-year-old.
The judge said: “Neither Kent County Council nor the home secretary knows where these children are, or whether they are safe or well.
“There is evidence that some have been persuaded to join gangs seeking to exploit them for criminal purposes.
“These children have been lost and endangered here, in the United Kingdom.
“They are not children in care who have run away. They are children who, because of how they came to be here, never entered the care system in the first place and so were never ‘looked after.’”
The judge added, “Ensuring the safety and welfare of children with no adult to look after them is among the most fundamental duties of any civilised state.”
Unprecedented Pressures
In a statement issued to The Epoch Times via email on Thursday, a Home Office spokesperson said the department would now consider the judgement.The spokesperson said: “The High Court has upheld that local authorities have a statutory duty to care for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
“We have always maintained that the best place for unaccompanied children to be accommodated is within a local authority.
“However, due to the unsustainable rise in illegal Channel crossings, the government has had no option but to accommodate young people in hotels on a temporary basis while placements with local authorities are urgently found,” the spokesperson said.
“In light of today’s judgment, we will continue to work with Kent County Council and local authorities across the UK to ensure suitable local authority placements are provided for unaccompanied children, in line with their duties.”
The high number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children arriving in the UK has placed unprecedented pressure on the National Transfer Scheme. The Home Office has already put in place further funding throughout 2023-2024 of £6,000 for every unaccompanied child moved from hotels to a local authority within five working days to encourage quicker transfers into local authority care.
In a statement issued following the ruling, ECPAT chief executive Patricia Durr said the treatment of asylum-seeking children in the UK is “a child protection scandal.”
“This judgment powerfully reaffirms the primacy of the Children Act 1989 and our child welfare statutory framework which does not allow for children to be treated differently because of their immigration status,” she said.
“Despite the recent passing of the Illegal Migration Act 2023, which will deny unaccompanied children the right to claim asylum, amongst other hugely damaging provisions, this judgment serves as a clear and timely reminder that neither central nor local government departments can depart from the statutory child welfare framework and the duties towards all children under The Children Act 1989.
“We will continue to defend the rights of every child in the UK to live free from exploitation and access the care they are entitled to under the law.”
NSPCC’s head of policy Anna Edmundson said the ruling “rightly reinforces” that protection and support is best provided by local authority care and that “no child should be placed in hotel accommodation.”
Ms. Edmundson added, “We will be urging the government to find solutions that will ensure all children and young people who come to the UK are properly supported, protected, and given the help they need to rebuild their lives safely.”
