Legal action
Protecting unaccompanied young asylum seekers whose age is disputed
Published: 18 January 2017
Last updated: 24 February 2017
What countries does this apply to?
Case details
| Types of equality claim | Other |
|---|---|
| Court or tribunal | High Court (Admin Court) |
| Decision has to be followed in | England, Scotland, Wales |
| Law applies in | England, Wales |
| Case state | Concluded |
| Our involvement | Intervention (section 30 of the Equality Act 2006) |
| Outcome | Judgment |
| Areas of life | Asylum seekers and refugees |
| Human Rights law | Article 8: Respect for your private and family life, home and correspondence |
| International framework | Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) |
Case name: R (S) v London Borough of Croydon & Anor
An unaccompanied young person arrived in the UK seeking asylum. He claimed he was under 18. His local council placed him in adult accommodation and refused to provide child-appropriate services until an age assessment had taken place. He challenged their decision, arguing that it breached his human rights.
Legal issue
Is a local authority required to treat an unaccompanied asylum seeker, who says he is a child, as a child pending a proper determination of his age?
Background
A young person arrived in the UK seeking asylum. He was unaccompanied and claimed to be under 18. The local council disputed his age and placed him in adult accommodation until an assessment of his age could take place.
They claimed the accommodation was safe and appropriate and that there was no duty to provide him with child-appropriate services until he had been assessed as a child. The boy challenged the council’s decision through the courts.
Why we were involved
In 2018, nearly 2,900 children applied for asylum having arrived in the UK alone.
Many will have experienced significant trauma and be particularly vulnerable. Our priority is to make sure that equality and human rights laws are upheld by institutions and this case was an opportunity to challenge a local authority which we were concerned had breached the Human Rights Act.
We believed that the council’s decision not to provide child-appropriate services until completion of an age assessment breached the Children’s Act and the boy’s human rights.
Our aim was to make sure that in the future, vulnerable young asylum seekers are treated as children until proven otherwise.
What we did
We intervened in the case, which is when we provide expert advice or evidence to help the court with the issues they are considering. We made clear that routinely holding a person in unsuitable adult accommodation while awaiting an age assessment was unlawful.
What happened
We intervened in the case, which is when we provide expert advice or evidence to help the court with the issues they are considering. We made clear that routinely holding a person in unsuitable adult accommodation while awaiting an age assessment was unlawful.
Who will benefit
This case has significant implications for councils who must now assume that any unaccompanied or trafficked young person who may be a child is one – and treat them as such.
The outcome of the case strengthens protection for unaccompanied children and we hope sends a strong message to other public bodies that they must respect equality and human rights legislation.
Date of hearing
Date concluded
Page updates
Published:
18 January 2017
Last updated:
24 February 2017
