Migrants as young as 9 put up in Hove hotel
Brighton and Hove City Council have take legal action against the Home Office
The High Court's heard how unaccompanied migrants as young as 9 have been put up in a hotel in Hove housing asylum seekers.
The Home Office wants to bring it back into use despite migrant children previously going missing from it.-a High Court judge has been told.
Mr Justice Johnson heard a "high proportion" of asylum-seekers initially accommodated in hotels are unaccompanied children under 16. He was given Home Office figures while overseeing a preliminary hearing in a High Court case centred on the use of a hotel to house unaccompanied children, involving the Government department and Brighton and Hove City Council.
The council is challenging a Home Office plan to re-use a hotel in the Brighton area from which migrant children have previously gone missing.
Bosses have taken legal action against Home Secretary Suella Braverman and want a judge to rule that the hotel should not be used. They say children could be targeted by criminals and abusers.
Mr Justice Johnson was told the Home Office had stopped using the hotel but is planning to use it again. A trial is expected to take place later this summer.
Mr Justice Johnson heard Kent County Council and a children's rights organisation are planning similar legal action relating to the accommodation of unaccompanied migrant children in hotels.
He heard that both Brighton and Kent councils are concerned the placement of unaccompanied migrant children in hotels puts them in a position where they are breaching, or would breach, their legal obligations relating to the care of youngsters.
The judge indicated all three cases might be considered together.