FZW, R (on the application of) v Bristol City Council

Facts

The claimant, anonymised as FZW, and her older sister, anonymised as MSW, are Eritrean nationals. Their mother died in 2013 and their father is disabled; by 2019 the sisters were living by themselves in a refugee camp in Ethiopia, and their older brother, who had been granted refugee status in the UK, later paid for them to live in a flat in Addis Ababa. After the Home Office refused entry clearance, the First-tier Tribunal allowed their appeal in March 2022 under paragraph 319X of the Immigration Rules, and they arrived lawfully in January 2023 to live with their brother in Bristol. That arrangement broke down in April 2024 because of his drinking and abusive behaviour, and the sisters presented to Bristol City Council as homeless. The council first housed them under section 188 of the Housing Act 1996, then terminated that support after the Home Office erroneously revoked their leave. Children's services stepped in and accommodated both sisters together under section 17 of the Children Act 1989 rather than section 20, so that on turning 18 the claimant received no care-leaver support under section 23C. She challenged that decision by judicial review on grounds of mislabelling and failure to exercise the discretion to treat her as a former relevant child.