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Duncan Lewis acts on behalf of a lead claimant challenging the Home Secretary's utilisation of a former military facility in Wethersfield, Essex as accommodation for asylum seekers. In the highly controversial facility, residents are physically separated from the local community under conditions that our client argues constitute detention and racial segregation. There is an absence of an effective screening process to identify vulnerable individuals, such as survivors of torture and trafficking along with those with serious health conditions. The claimant has been granted a final hearing, scheduled for July 2024.

Our client advanced his challenge on the basis that the accommodation at Wethersfield has the effect of segregating him, and other men of non-British national origin from those of British nationals. This form of segregation has never been adopted in any housing policy or other scheme in the U.K. He claims that such a policy requires express authorisation by Parliament and this cannot be found in the legal framework under which accommodation is currently provided to otherwise destitute asylum-seekers.

The stark conditions at Wethersfield also mean that it is inadequate for him as well as the other residents. There isa lack of access to adequate healthcare, lack of opportunities to leave the site, the 24-hour surveillance by CCTV cameras and security staff as well as being surrounded by high fences topped with barbed wire. These conditions have left residents feeling as though they are trapped and detained there, resulting in serious deteriorations in their mental health and a number of suicide attempts. These circumstances follow just months after the tragic death of an asylum-seeker who was accommodated on the Bibby Stockholm barge, another mass asylum accommodation site which the Home Secretary is currently defending the use of in the High Court.

The Government recognises these individuals should not be accommodated at ex-military bases but evidence presented to the High Court illustrates that they routinely have been since 12 July 2023 when the Wethersfield facility opened as asylum accommodation. It seems that individuals have only been relocated from the site following legal correspondence sent to the Home Secretary. Nonetheless, there are intentions to expand the accommodation of vulnerable asylum-seekers at the site to over 1,700 in the near future. Shalini Patel, solicitor at Duncan Lewis, said:

“We are delighted and relieved that the High Court has granted permission for our client’s challenge to the legality and adequacy of RAF Wethersfield, as well as the segregation of asylum seekers. Our client is the only one of the four asylum-seekers granted permission to bring the challenge that remains at the site despite the Home Office being aware since at least November 2023 that his physical and mental health have deteriorated significantly during his time at the camp, including a suicide attempt and further suicidal ideations. We are seeing a complete failure by the Home Office to adequately apply its policy which clearly stipulates that victims of trafficking, torture, those with physical disabilities or mental health issues are not suitable for accommodation at the base. Despite this, every client we have represented falls into these categories. It is extremely concerning that asylum-seekers are only moved off the base upon legal intervention and there is a complete failure by the Home Office to undertake the necessary screening to assess suitability from the outset and during the time an individual is at the base. We are also very concerned that the site is visibly separated from the local area. We challenge this segregation of asylum seekers as it amounts to direct discrimination. Our client describes feeling detained, intimated and scared.”

A final four-day hearing has been listed for the week commencing 22 July 2024.

The team working on this at Duncan Lewis is Toufique Hossain, Shalini Patel, Thomas Munns and Rhiannon Croker. Counsel instructed are Alex Goodman KC and Miranda Butler from Landmark Chambers.

We wish to thank the Runnymede Trust, Helen Bamber Foundation, Humans for Rights Network, Refugee, Asylum Seeker and Migrant Action and Care 4 Calais for providing valuable evidence in these claims.

The Claimants have been anonymised pursuant to Court Order and cannot be identified. We also represent Care 4 Calais in their challenge to asylum-seeker accommodation at Wethersfield. Their claim was stayed behind the lead claimants along with five other individual claims. Other claimants are represented by Deighton Pierce Glynn Solicitors and Gold Jennings.

Duncan Lewis Solicitors

Duncan Lewis has the leading public law and immigration practice in the UK. It is ranked and recommended as a top tier practice by The Legal 500 directory and director Toufique Hossain is the only legal director in the country top ranked in three areas. The team frequently takes on and successfully brings challenges in some of the most high profile cases in the UK, including in relation to the Rwanda plan, Manston House and Brook House.

Duncan Lewis Solicitors

Duncan Lewis Solicitors, an award-winning law firm, is renowned for its exceptional legal services and commitment to justice. The company employs a team of highly skilled solicitors offering top-tier representation in 25 fields of law, and ranked as top tier by the Chambers and the Legal 500 legal guides, and as one of the top 250 law firms in the country by the Times. Duncan Lewis was crowned Law Firm of the Year at the Modern Law Awards 2023, further establishing its credentials as one of the leading law firms in the UK.

For advice or assistance on public law matter, contact Toufique Hossain via email at ToufiqueH@duncanlewis.com or via telephone at 02031190328.