TO PREVENT legal challenges, the Home Office refused to provide a proper explanation to children whose asylum claims were rejected and then misled the High Court about why.

The Court of Appeal declared today that the speeded-up process to assess unaccompanied asylum-seeking children as the French authorities prepared to demolish the Jungle refugee camp at Calais in 2016 was unlawful.

Lord Justice Singh said the process, by which about 750 children were taken in by Britain, was procedurally unfair as those youngsters turned down were only given “sparse” reasons for their applications’ rejections.