Updates, commentary, training and advice on immigration and asylum law

Rare statistics show rise in number of deportation orders upheld on appeal

THANKS FOR READING

Older content is locked

A great deal of time and effort goes into producing the information on Free Movement, become a member of Free Movement to get unlimited access to all articles, and much, much more

TAKE FREE MOVEMENT FURTHER

By becoming a member of Free Movement, you not only support the hard-work that goes into maintaining the website, but get access to premium features;

  • Single login for personal use
  • FREE downloads of Free Movement ebooks
  • Access to all Free Movement blog content
  • Access to all our online training materials
  • Access to our busy forums
  • Downloadable CPD certificates

One quirk of government statistics is that they no longer record how many deportation orders are successfully appealed. For tedious reasons of appeals law, since 2015/16 the relevant stats have only shown deportation appeals by EU citizens; deportation appeals by non-EU citizens are lumped into a larger category of “human rights”. So while we know that from 2010/11 to 2015/16, around two thirds of all deportation orders were upheld by the First-tier Tribunal, we don’t really know what has been happening over the past five years.

But here’s a straw in the wind. Yesterday’s inspection report on the performance of the Home Office officials who argue appeals in court does contain some statistics on deportation appeal outcomes:

This is internal data collected by the Appeals Operations team, showing what percentage of non-EU deportation appeals are won by the Home Office. Strikingly, it begins in mid-2018 with a win rate of around two thirds — i.e. about the same as the official statistics were showing before they were discontinued in 2015 — but then climbs to three quarters by late 2019.

Appeals Operations put this increase largely down to “changes in caselaw”. This suggests that the October 2018 decision in KO (Nigeria), as interpreted by the Court of Appeal in a subsequent line of cases, made a tangible difference to the outcome of deportation appeals in the immigration tribunal.

The good news, from a deportee’s perspective, is that the Court of Appeal changed tack late last year. That Home Office “win rate” should now be starting to fall. 

Relevant articles chosen for you
Picture of CJ McKinney

CJ McKinney

CJ McKinney is a specialist on immigration law and policy. Formerly the editor of Free Movement, you will find a lot of articles by CJ here on this website! Twitter: @mckinneytweets.

Comments