Court Upholds UK Cap on Number of Child Refugees

The government’s decision to cap the number of unaccompanied child refugees who can be brought into the UK has been upheld by the court of appeal. But three senior judges said there had been a breach of the “duty of fairness” in the process because those refused entry were not given any reasons for being denied permission. The limit of 480 asylum seekers under the age of 18 was set by the Home Office after the government was forced to accept a parliamentary amendment by the Labour peer Lord Dubs.

The decision by the judges, Lord Justice McCombe, Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Hickinbottom, opens the way for children refused entry to bring individual challenges about the way their applications were handled. The judges ruled that there was nothing wrong with the consultation carried out by the government, by which it arrived at the 480 figure. Giving reasons for the court’s ruling, Hickinbottom said: “In my judgment, the reasons given for rejecting a child … were patently inadequate.” Children who had their applications rejected will now be entitled to receive those reasons and can appeal against those decisions.

Read more: Owen Bowcott, Guardian, https://bit.ly/2ybNW64