The UK High Court ruled on Thursday that the Home Office's routine practice of housing unaccompanied minor asylum seekers in hotels was unlawful
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th July, 2023) The UK High Court ruled on Thursday that the Home Office's routine practice of housing unaccompanied minor asylum seekers in hotels was unlawful.
UK charity organization Every Child Protected Against Trafficking brought a legal challenge against the UK Home Office earlier this year for its practice of housing unaccompanied asylum-seeking (UAS) children in hotels.
"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 UAS children. From that point on, the Home Secretary's provision of hotel accommodation for UAS children exceeded the proper limits of her powers was unlawful," the ruling read.
Justice Martin Daniel Chamberlain ruled that the UK Home Office's power to accommodate unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in hotels may "be used on very short periods in true emergency situations."
In August 2022, over 13,500 people crossed the English Channel to enter the UK illegally, which is an all-time monthly high since the beginning of the migration crisis in 2019. The total number of migrants who entered the UK in 2022 was over 44,000, including children. British media reported that the country was spending about 7 million Pounds ($8.7 million) per day to house migrants in hotels.
