HUNDREDS of survivors of torture abroad seeking protection in Britain have been wrongly locked up in detention centres, the High Court ruled yesterday.

Mr Justice Ouseley concluded that asylum-seekers had been unlawfully detained as their treatment had fallen outside a new Home Office definition of torture which he found too narrow.

He ruled in favour of seven former detainees and a charity, who also argued that the government policy would lead to more vulnerable people being put in harm’s way by being locked up in detention centres.