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| Torture survivors win asylum seeker detention ruling | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Survivors of torture have won a legal challenge against Home Office rules on asylum seeker detention in the UK. | Survivors of torture have won a legal challenge against Home Office rules on asylum seeker detention in the UK. |
| The government had argued torture could only be carried out by official state agents or terror groups with territory. | |
| But the charity Medical Justice and former immigration centre detainees argued this legal definition was too narrow. | |
| The Home Office has said it will not appeal against the ruling, which could affect hundreds of cases. | |
| Mr Justice Ouseley ruled in favour of the charity and the former detainees after hearing accusations that individuals were locked up during the processing of their asylum claims, despite doctors submitting evidence of torture and ill-treatment to the Home Office. | |
| He ruled that Home Office policy on torture survivors "lacked a rational or evidence basis". | |
| Two-tier system 'leaves refugees destitute' | |
| Medical Justice accused the government of adopting an unreasonably narrow definition of torture in policy changes made last September related to Article 1 of the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Uncat). | |
| The legal challenge argued that the new definition - which was made last September and has been on hold pending the judge's ruling - had led to "many" detainees, including victims of trafficking, no longer being recognised as victims of torture. | |
| Their lawyer argued at a hearing earlier this year that there was no "lawful authorisation" for replacing the broader meaning of torture under the Detention Centre Rules 2001, and that the change did not comply with the government's public sector equality duty under the Equality Act 2010. |