The UK Excessive Court docket ruled Thursday that the Dwelling Secretary acted unlawfully by routinely accommodating unaccompanied asylum-seeking youngsters (UAS youngsters) in inns. The decide additionally held that Kent County Council acted unlawfully by breaching its authorized responsibility to take care of these youngsters.
In a judicial overview case introduced by the group Each Little one Protected In opposition to Trafficking (ECPAT), Justice Martin Chamberlain investigated Kent County Council’s and the Dwelling Secretary’s failure to correctly accommodate UAS youngsters. As UAS youngsters typically arrive in Kent through small boats, native authorities are obliged by the Children’s Act 1989 to accommodate and take care of them. Nevertheless, in 2021 Kent County Council claimed they reached their restrict on safely caring for UAS youngsters, whereas nonetheless accepting different, non-UAS youngsters into their care. Because of this, the Dwelling Secretary commissioned inns to accommodate UAS youngsters exterior the care system. This led to greater than 5,400 UAS youngsters residing in inns for a median interval of 9 to twenty days, with some staying for as much as two months.
The Excessive Court docket decide held that Kent County Council had acted unlawfully by “ceasing to simply accept duty for some newly arriving UAS youngsters whereas persevering with to simply accept different youngsters into its care.” This differential therapy was a breach of the Youngsters’s Act, which requires native authorities to accommodate all unaccompanied youngsters “no matter immigration standing, on the idea of want alone.” The decide additionally highlighted that their failure to safeguard the welfare and supply protecting measures to the youngsters in inns was an additional breach of their authorized obligations as a neighborhood authority. The Dwelling Secretary’s actions have been additionally held to be illegal. Whereas it’s inside the Dwelling Secretary’s energy to resolve how these youngsters are accommodated, housing them in inns “exceeded the correct limits of her powers.”
As of 17 July 2023, 218 UAS youngsters have been being housed in inns within the UK. Commenting on the case, Patricia Durr, CEO of ECPAT UK stated:
This judgement powerfully reaffirms the primacy of the Youngsters Act 1989 and our baby welfare statutory framework which doesn’t enable for youngsters to handled in a different way due to their immigration standing. It stays a baby safety scandal that so lots of the most weak youngsters stay lacking prone to important hurt as a consequence of those illegal actions by the Secretary of State and Kent County Council . . . We’ll proceed to defend the rights of each baby within the UK to stay free from exploitation and entry the care they’re entitled to beneath the regulation
