*R (on the application of B) v London borough of Southwark

Case date: 18 September 2006

An application for judicial review of a local authority’s decision to stop supporting an asylum-seeker under the Children Act 1989, while he had an outstanding application with the Home Office concerning his human rights, where the decision had assumed that deporting him would not breach those human rights.

B had come to the UK from Uganda at 15 years old, using a false passport. A year later, he claimed asylum. The refugee council referred him to the local authority as a child in need. The local authority treated him as a child who needed housing under s20 of the Children Act 1989.

B’s asylum claim was rejected by the Secretary of State. He was also refused limited permission to enter until he was 18. The adjudicator dismissed his appeals, assuming that he would not be removed until he was 18, or until satisfactory arrangements for his removal could be made under general Home Office policy. The Immigration Appeal Tribunal refused permission to appeal from the adjudicator’s decision.

B made another application for permission to remain some months after his eighteenth birthday.