High Court hears challenge over Government failure on Dubs Amendment

The High Court will this week hear a legal challenge to the Government’s failure to implement the Dubs Amendment in relation to unaccompanied refugee children.

Under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 (‘the Dubs Amendment’) the Government is required to make arrangements ‘as soon as possible’ after the passing of the Immigration Act 2016 (on 31 May 2016) to relocate and support a ‘specified number’ of unaccompanied refugee children from Europe.

The Government is required to consult with local authorities to determine the number of children to be relocated. 

NGO Help Refugees, represented by Leigh Day Solicitors, are challenging the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, over the Government’s alleged failure to comply properly with that duty.

Litigation brought by Help Refugees has previously seen the Government admit that it ‘missed’ 130 local authority places for children, and to raise the original number of 350 children to be relocated to 480. 

The claimants will argue that the Government’s consultation with local authorities by which it reached the low number of children to be relocated was “seriously defective”.

They also plan to challenge the Government’s failure to implement its duties to relocate and support unaccompanied refugee children as soon as possible, and contend that it is unlawful for the Government – having delayed so long in implementing the Dubs Amendment – to maintain its policy of a 20 March 2016 cut-off point for refugee children’s eligibility for relocation. 

Lord Alf Dubs, a former child refugee and the original sponsor for the Dubs Amendment, said: “I believe the Government’s inadequate consultation to calculate local authority capacity, the woefully low number that the Government has set and the appallingly slow pace of relocations are all indicative of a level of incompetence in the current government that’s verging on deep cynicism. The Government’s foot-dragging is putting refugee children’s lives at risk.

“That is why this legal challenge is so very important. What these children need is a helping hand, similar to the one Britain lent me when I was a boy. I wasn’t left alone to live in camps or on the streets of Europe. I was saved by Britain and its people.”

Leigh Day’s Rosa Curling, who is acting on behalf of Help Refugees, said: “The Government’s consultation with local authorities was seriously flawed. We are asking the Court to order the Government to reopen the consultation so that national capacity to assist these children can be properly assessed.”