Former army barracks not suitable to host asylum seekers, UK High Court rules

LONDON

UK Home Office’s housing irregular migrants in a former army barracks in Kent, England was unlawful, the High Court has ruled Thursday.

The court found the accommodation failed to meet a “minimum standard” in the case filed by six asylum seekers who argued that the Napier Barracks was unsafe and the conditions caused a COVID-19 outbreak.

The case also argued that British authorities acted unlawfully by accommodating people there as conditions posed “real and immediate risks to life and of ill-treatment.”

The Home Office has used the former barracks despite health warnings from Public Health England.

“Whether on the basis of the issues of Covid or fire safety taken in isolation, or looking at the cumulative effect of the decision-making about, and the conditions in, the barracks, I do not accept that the accommodation there ensured a standard of living which was adequate for the health of the claimants,” the High Court judge Thomas Linden said.

“Insofar as the defendant considered that the accommodation was adequate for their needs, that view was irrational.”

The six asylum seekers will have an option to sue the Home Office for damages with the latest ruling from the High Court.