Home Office expects to support up to 140,000 asylum seekers after record Channel crossings

Home secretary’s lawyers tell High Court situation is ‘emergency’ as council battles asylum camp at RAF base

A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, on board a Border Force vessel, following a small boat incident in the Channel (PA)

The Home Office expects to be supporting up to 140,000 asylum seekers by the end of this year, Suella Braverman’s lawyers have told the High Court.

A barrister also revealed the government is “working on estimates of up to another 56,000 people arriving on small boats this year”, which would be a new record and a rise of more than a fifth on 2022.

The disclosures were made as the home secretary’s legal team defended her attempt to declare the current shortage of asylum accommodation an “emergency” to bypass normal planning permission.