An unaccompanied asylum seeker who claimed Swindon Borough Council infringed his human rights has had his appeal dismissed by the Court of Appeal.

The asylum seeker, named ‘H’, said the council violated Article 4 of the European Convention of Human Rights, which is that no-one shall be held in slavery or servitude.

H was an unaccompanied asylum seeking minor who entered the United Kingdom illegally in February 2018, when he was 15 years old. He was located by the police in Swindon after he ran from the back of a lorry with seven other asylum seekers.

On 28 February 2018, H was placed into the council’s care, starting a placement in foster care on March 1. A series of placements then broke down because his “challenging behaviour”.

He was then arrested for threatening to kill his foster carers and their son, before being placed in temporary hotel accommodation. On May 3 he pleaded guilty to affray and was sentenced to a six months referral order. On October 12 H, now assessed to be an adult, pleaded guilty to assaulting a carer and causing criminal damage, and was sentenced to a period of imprisonment in an adult prison. He was released from prison on February 15, 2019.

On April 3, 2019, Gloucester Adult Mental Health Services, where H had been accommodated, closed their involvement with H on the basis that he had decided not to engage with them. There were indications that H was the victim of modern slavery.

On 4 June 2019, the council’s Children’s Services made a referral for identifying victims of modern slavery to the Single Competent Authority.

On June 11, the Home Office issued a decision, finding there to be reasonable grounds that H was a victim of trafficking, and in July the council conducted a pathway plan assessment, on the basis that H was an adult.

But in October, the council then reassessed H’s age and concluded that he was still a child. In January 2020, the SCA made a decision that H was a victim of modern slavery.

The exploitation was on the grounds of 'manual labour in Kirkuk, Iraq' and 'forced criminality in the UK'.

After a judicial review, a judge found the council was entitled to regard the police and the SCA as the agencies principally concerned with the protection duty in Article 4 of the ECHR.

In his written judgement Lord Justice Dingemans said there were no grounds for allowing the appeal and that the previous judge was entitled to find that there was no infringement of Article 4 of the ECHR.

Swindon Borough Council was contacted for comment.