LONDON (Reuters) – A local authority in southern England on Friday lost its bid at the High Court in London to stop the British government from accommodating asylum seekers at a former military base.
Braintree District Council, a local authority in Essex to the northeast of London, had sought an injunction to prevent the interior ministry housing up to 1,700 asylum seekers at the site.
The council said the government was wrongly using emergency powers to house asylum seekers at the air base, which its lawyers said in court filings was “driven by cost”.
Judge David Waksman said on Friday he had no jurisdiction to grant the council an injunction. However, the judge granted the council permission to appeal against his ruling.
Documents filed with the court for a hearing on Wednesday showed Britain anticipates 56,000 migrants will cross the Channel in small boats to its shores this year.
That would mean the government would need to accommodate as many as 140,000 asylum seekers, the filings showed.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made stopping boat arrivals one of his five priorities after more than 45,000 migrants arrived on the south coast of England in 2022. The number was a record and marked a 500% increase in the last two years.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by Barbara Lewis)
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