Home Office rules for asylum seekers claiming torture declared irrational

Torture survivors who claim asylum in the United Kingdom have won a legal challenge against Home Office rules determining who should be detained while their claims are being processed.

Mr Justice Ouseley in the High Court in London upheld an argument that the Government had applied too narrow a definition in restricting torture to acts carried out by official state agents, resulting in vulnerable applicants being locked up.

The rules challenged purported to apply a United Nations document designed to protect victims of torture. The Home Office advised medical practitioners assessing individuals' vulnerability to harm in detention that torture inflicted by non-state actors must not be considered torture for the purposes of their examinations.

The case was brought by seven survivors of torture who had been detained in the UK, including victims of sexual and physical abuse, trafficking, sexual exploitation, homophobic attacks and a child abused by loan sharks, supported by the charity Medical Justice, which said it had warned the Government of the risk of harm to those detained as a result of the policy.

Interim relief was granted suspending the policy last November. It is understood that the Government does not intend to appeal against the ruling, which could affect hundreds of cases.