Medway Council loses unaccompanied asylum-seeking children case

The Home Office made the national transfer for lone asylum-seeking children scheme mandatory in 2021

A council has lost a High Court challenge against the Home Office over a scheme to place unaccompanied asylum-seeking children around the country.

Medway Council had objected to being part of the now-compulsory national transfer scheme where local authorities share responsibility for such children.

Judges rejected the council's argument that it had issues with capacity.

The Home Office said that the scheme was "nuanced" and took local pressures into account.

The Home Office began a voluntary scheme in 2016 following a growing number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, in an attempt to reduce pressure on local authorities near major entry points to the UK, including Kent.

The voluntary scheme was unable to place all the children in participating local authorities, and the Home Office made the scheme mandatory in 2021. Some exemptions were allowed for reasons including capacity and finances.

Medway Council brought legal action, arguing the policy ignored important factors in deciding whether the scheme would "unduly prejudice" local authorities' other work.

Lord Justice Bean, sitting at the High Court with Mrs Justice Collins Rice, said the Home Office "was entitled to interpret 'undue' prejudice as requiring circumstances amounting to a crisis such as a complete breakdown of children's services".

He said any local authority could say that they would be negatively affected by taking in more children due to staff shortages and budget issues "which nowadays are all but universal".

The judge added: "It should only be in circumstances of crisis amounting to a complete breakdown that a local authority should be exempt from participation in the scheme altogether."

He concluded: "Unlike local authorities, the Home Office and its officials do not have the facilities, the skills, or the legal powers and duties to look after children."

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