Refugee group hails ruling on housing

The Refugee Council says life will be more “bearable” for asylum
seekers after the Home Office was ordered to re-think its policy of
not publicising “hard case” housing support to those awaiting
return to their home countries.

A High Court judge said last week that the policy of withholding
information about the support, which includes full-board
accommodation, was based partly on the view that it wanted to
discourage unfounded applications.

Maeve Sherlock, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “We
hope this ruling will help to ensure that life for these people
will become a little more bearable.”

The case was brought by an Iraqi Kurd and an Iranian.

The government was given leave to appeal.