Judicial review solicitor at Leigh Day & Co., Jamie Beagent, has successfully represented two unaccompanied
children seeking asylum in the UK who were detained by the Home Office in an adult detention facility.
A High Court Judge found that the Home Office, who maintained that the two children were actually adults in spite of medical evidence to the contrary, acted irrationally and in breach of their own policy by detaining the children and not putting them into the care of a local authority.
Despite the Home Office’s ongoing contention that the physical appearance of the children “strongly suggested” that they were over the age of 18, the children were only released when social workers informed the Home Office that, in their view, the physical appearance of the two strongly suggested they were under the age of 18.
The asylum-seeking children are now likely to receive compensation
The children, whose identity cannot be disclosed, are now likely to receive substantial compensation for their
unlawful detention.
It is hoped that this judgment will now force the Home Office to comply with their own policy not to detain minors or be faced with a raft of similar claims for compensation.
Jamie Beagent: " In its zeal to clamp down on asylum applicants who claim to be children, the Home Office is routinely detaining children in adult detention facilities without appropriate care or safeguards. This judgment firmly establishes that the Home Office must give due weight to expert medical evidence which concludes that an individual is a child and make suitable care arrangements for that child."
For more information please contact
Jamie Beagent on 020 7650 1200.
Information was correct at time of publishing. See terms and conditions for further details.