Judges may stop Britain deporting EU street sleepers
THE number of rough sleepers in the capital has fallen for the first time in a decade, following a policy to deport homeless Romanians and Poles.
But the scheme could be halted by a judicial review being brought against the Home Office in the High Court next month.
According to figures compiled by the Mayor of London, the number of rough sleepers in the city increased year-on-year from 3,017 in 2007-08 to 8,108 in 2016-17.
But between April and June this year, the number sleeping rough on at least one occasion dropped by 4 per cent.
It follows moves to deport about 1,000 Romanians and Poles in the past year, with some 200 leaving voluntarily and the rest removed by immigration officers.
In 2015, the Home Office ran a pilot scheme which removed 127 European rough sleepers in Westminster in two months. It was then extended nationally.
The Home Office claims that rough sleepers who cannot support themselves when they come to Britain lose their rights as EU citizens to freedom of movement.
But Paul Heron, of Lambeth Law Centre, which is bringing next month’s legal challenge, said the policy was wrong in principle. ‘[I represent] a man from Bulgaria who came here two years ago, and even paid his TV licence,’ he told The Sunday Times. ‘He lost his accommodation, was sleeping in a van for two weeks and was due to see a room the next day when he was hauled out by Home Office officials. Because of the detention he lost his warehouse job.’
According to a source with knowledge of Home Office enforcement, many central and eastern European rough sleepers reject the chance to rent property. The source pointed to one builder earning £1,000 a month chose to sleep rough to avoid paying £500 for accommodation and £200 for travel. From 2012, dozens of homeless people, mainly Romanians and Bulgarians, descended on the capital’s Marble Arch.
Figures show the number of UK-born rough sleepers is at a record high. In England, the total for one autumn night rose by 16 per cent to 4,134 from 2015 to 2016.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘No one should come to the UK with the intention of sleeping rough and we will consider carefully the immigration status of those who are encountered doing so.’