The Home Office is ending its contract with a hotel in Hove where unaccompanied asylum-seeking children went missing, the leader of the council said.
Brighton and Hove City Council leader Bella Sankey said that the Home Office would end its contract with Langfords hotel in Hove to house unaccompanied youths on Thursday (30 November).
Councillor Sankey posted on Twitter: “The Home Office contract with a Hove hotel to accommodate unaccompanied children seeking asylum will end on Thursday.
“This is a major milestone for our council and for our city.
“Because Brighton and Hove Labour and Brighton and Hove City Council took action, this inhumane policy is ending.”
The move comes after the council took legal action against the government in June after the Home Office planned to reopen the hotel despite 50 children “still unaccounted for”.
Sussex Police said that 139 young people had gone missing from Hove since July 2021 and 90 children had been found.
On Thursday 27 July, a High Court judge ruled that the practice of housing lone child asylum-seekers in hotels had been unlawful for more than 18 months.
Sir Martin Chamberlain, known professionally as Mr Justice Chamberlain, said that the practice was unlawful because the power to place the children in hotels “may be used on very short periods in true emergency situations”.
The Home Office said that the best place to house unaccompanied children was with a local authority.
The Home Office added: “Due to the rise in dangerous small boats crossings, the government has had no alternative but to urgently use hotels to accommodate unaccompanied asylum-seeking children while they await placements with local authorities.
“We are making every effort to end the use of expensive hotels which are costing the taxpayer £8.2 million a day, including opening ex-military sites and the Bibby Stockholm.”
