Immigration detainees working for £1 an hour is lawful because it is there to relieve boredom and not earn income, the High Court has ruled.

Four former and current detainees claimed they were being "exploited" by the Home Office's "blanket rate" of pay for work while held in immigration removal centres (IRCs).

They said IRCs rely on their labour - which includes working as cleaners, barbers and even organising legal advice surgeries - but the Home Office argued that detainees are under no obligation to carry out paid work.

Giving judgment in London on Wednesday, Mr Justice Murray found that the policy was lawful, ruling: "It is not, in my view, inhumane to set a fixed rate for paid activity that a detained person is not compelled to do."

The judge held that the policy was not intended to provide detainees with "a means of earning an income", saying it was "solely concerned with meeting 'recreational and intellectual needs and the relief of boredom"'.

He stated: "A detained person may well feel that it is incompatible with his dignity and/or exploitative to work for £1 per hour cleaning or doing any other type of work. That is understandable. But the detained person is not compelled to do it."