High Court Hears Arguments on Home Office's Use of Crowborough Camp for Asylum Seekers

The Home Office did not act in secrecy over its decision to house asylum seekers at a former military training camp in East Sussex and engaged with relevant bodies beforehand and afterwards, the High Court has heard.

Community interest company Crowborough Shield is taking legal action over the government's use of Crowborough Training Camp to house up to 540 men.

The group claims the Home Office failed to exercise its powers with the openness required.

James Strachan KC, for the Home Office, said the Secretary of State engaged with the police, NHS and councils and once the decision was taken, a forum was established for people to address any issues.

During the second day of the two-day hearing, the court also heard arguments over the home secretary's use of emergency powers to move asylum seekers to Crowborough.

Earlier, Alex Goodman KC, for Crowborough Shield, said the Home Office wrongly decided the need to accommodate asylum seekers constituted an "emergency" under planning rules, meaning it was automatically granted permission to develop the site.

But on Wednesday, Strachan told the court the definition of an emergency was an event or situation that threatened serious damage to human welfare such as homelessness, injury, or damage to property.

Strachan said the home secretary was responding to a statutory duty to accommodate asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute and homeless, but Goodman asked: "Are we faced here with an emergency which may cause homelessness?"