Council loses court bid over housing more asylum seekers in city

LEGAL ACTION BROUGHT OVER 'EXCESSIVE' PLACEMENT OF MIGRANTS

- By NINA MASSEY PA Reporter

COVENTRY City Council has lost a High Court claim against the Home Office's decision to accommodate further asylum seekers in the city.

Although Coventry City Council was “proud” of voluntarily housing asylum seekers, it brought the legal action, saying the number of migrants being accommodated in the city was “excessive”.

Lawyers for the council said the Home Office’s failure to reduce the number of asylum seekers housed in Coventry more quickly and the placement of further asylum seekers were both “unlawful”.

On Friday, Mr Justice Eyre dismissed the claim.

In the 32-page ruling, he said: “The defendant accepts that the number of asylum seekers accommodated in Coventry should be reduced.

“She contends that she is moving to implement a policy under which asylum seekers are accommodated more widely throughout the United Kingdom, but she denies that there is any unlawfulness in the action she has taken thus far.”