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Lawyers for Home Secretary say High Court situation 'urgent' as council fights asylum camp at RAF base A group of people believed to be immigrants are brought to Dover, Kent, on a Border Force ship, following a minor shipping incident in the English Channel. The Home Office plans to support up to 140,000 asylum seekers by the end of this year, lawyers for Suella Braverman told the High Court.
A lawyer also revealed that the government was "working on estimates of up to 56,000 more people arriving by small boat this year," which would be a new record and an increase of more than a fifth on 2022.
The revelations came as the Home Secretary's legal team defended its attempt to declare the current shortage of accommodation for asylum seekers an "emergency" in order to circumvent normal planning permission.
A planning rule known as 'Class Q' is being used in a bid to convert the former RAF Wethersfield base in Essex into a camp housing 1,700 asylum seekers using existing buildings and 'modular units'.
Home Office lawyer Paul Brown KC said it was "Ms Braverman's position that the situation is generally an emergency."
He pointed to the increase in Channel crossings, record asylum backlogs, government programs for Afghan and Ukrainian refugees, previous overcrowding at the Manston processing facility and a shortage of hotel spaces after the end of the Covid pandemic.
Brown said there was a "need to find a longer-term solution to what happened in Manston" when thousands of people were illegally detained in the fall and an asylum seeker died of diphtheria.
"The flow of small boats has not stopped, no one has a crystal ball but the Secretary of State is currently working on estimates of up to 56,000 more people arriving by small boat this year," he added.
"If this happens, the number of people likely to need housing and livelihood support is expected to increase from the current 109,000 to 140,000."
The Home Office is legally bound to prevent asylum seekers from being left destitute when considering their claims, and a record backlog has built up due to attempts to declare people arriving on small boats nowhere to dump them.
More than 160,000 people were waiting for a first decision at the end of last year, 110,000 of whom received government support, and ministers have rejected calls to lift the legal ban on working to support themselves.
Brown argued that the situation "threatens homelessness," which is one of the thresholds for declaring an emergency under planning laws, "if the Secretary of State is unable to provide housing."
“If they are vulnerable or disadvantaged, they are more likely to get sick or die,” he added. "There has been a particular urgency in Manston and there is a very real anticipation that the situation, unless we find a solution, will only get worse."
M. Brown suggested that the hotels be able to withdraw from the contracts of the Minister of the Interior because their affairs are veulent, rendant les demandeurs d'asile qui y vivent sans abri, mais n'a fourni no example de ce what's going on.
Written submissions from Home Office lawyers said that "the question of whether a state of affairs constitutes an 'emergency' is solely for the department of government that exercises Q-class law."
Braintree Borough Council is seeking an injunction to stop development in Wethersfield and compel the government to apply for planning permission in the normal way and carry out the necessary consultations with public and local authorities.
Lawyer Wayne Beglan told Wednesday's hearing that the current situation was not an emergency within the meaning of the law used, and that the ministers' push to use military bases was "cost-driven".
The former RAF Wethersfield base in Essex could be converted into a camp housing 1,700 asylum seekers using existing buildings and 'modular units'
It questioned whether the Home Office's campaign to cut hotel spending "creates an emergency situation within the meaning of [the law] in such a way that all identified procedural safeguards are circumvented."
The council's written submissions argued that the intent of the law was to "cover circumstances such as a natural disaster or a security incident" where there was a threat of loss of life. “This does not encompass a nationwide housing shortage, however it is described,” the document adds.
“Mere pressure on resources is not an emergency. These are political questions that are addressed, from time to time, by evolving political decisions.
The Home Secretary's lawyer said that if the High Court rules against the Home Office and decides that the current situation is not an emergency under the relevant law, the use of RAF Wethersfield "will cease".
But Brown also told the court that the government planned to use the same 'Class Q' planning process for other planned asylum camps, including one at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire.
Judge Waksman has booked the trial until a later date and the Home Office has formally committed that as development continues no asylum seekers will be transferred to Wethersfield before trial or May 3, whichever comes first.
The announcement of the hosting plans last month sparked a furious reaction from Conservative parliamentarians and councils, who say they were not properly consulted and the sites chosen are unsuitable.
Under the separate Leveling and Regeneration Bill, the government is giving itself the power to circumvent normal planning permission for asylum seeker accommodation and other urgent developments of "national importance".
New laws being considered by the House of Lords would allow the Housing Secretary, currently Michael Gove, to make decisions about the use of government-owned land rather than local authorities.
Data: home office
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