All Articles: Court of Appeal
Damages claim for asylum delay dismissed by Court of Appeal
The Court of Appeal has dismissed a claim for damages against the Home Secretary for a five month delay in granting refugee status, following a successful appeal, to a person with severe mental health issues. The case is FXJ v Secretary of State for t ...
30th November 2023Court of Appeal tells Home Office to reconsider “plainly wrong” decision on Turkish business person application
The Home Office must reconsider an application in the now closed Turkish business person route after an poor initial decision to refuse was then compounded by flawed decision making on administrative review and in the subsequent judicial review. The c ...
29th November 2023Court of Appeal says deportation of mother of British child not “unduly harsh”
The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal against the deportation of a mother with a British citizen child, finding that their separation would not be “unduly harsh”. The case is FN (Burundi) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] E ...
22nd November 2023Court of Appeal dismisses appeal on interpretation of nationality law
The Court of Appeal has agreed with the High Court and dismissed an appeal on a point of statutory interpretation regarding when the right of abode was acquired through a person’s parent. The case is Indran Murugason, R (on the application of) v ...
21st November 2023Deception case returned to the Upper Tribunal after material error of law made
The Court of Appeal has sent a case back to the Upper Tribunal for reconsideration after a failure to properly consider article 8 and the making of a material error in relation to the appellant’s husband’s nationality. The case is Gurdeep ...
20th November 2023Upper Tribunal failed to properly assess whether error of law was material in asylum appeal
The Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal from the Upper Tribunal (IAC) against the refusal of an asylum claim by an Iraqi man whose claim was partly based on a risk of violence because of his relationship with his girlfriend. The case is ASO (Iraq) v ...
17th November 2023Late evidence from the Home Office can be admitted in an appeal where the appellant was aware of it
The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal where it was argued that evidence from an earlier judicial review should not be admitted to proceedings in the First-tier Tribunal due to late disclosure by the Home Office. The case is Kanhirakandan v The S ...
14th November 2023Court of Appeal dismisses government appeal on access to benefits for people with pre settled status
The Court of Appeal has dismissed the government’s appeal in Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v AT (AIRE Centre and Independent Monitoring Authority intervening) [2023] EWCA Civ 1307, meaning that people with pre settled status under App ...
9th November 2023Court of Appeal sends medical treatment case back to the First-tier Tribunal
The Court of Appeal has reiterated the process that should be followed in article 3 medical treatment cases in relation to the shifting burden of proof, as set out in AM (Zimbabwe) v SSHD [2020] UKSC 17 and in the headnote to the Upper Tribunal&# ...
2nd November 2023Court of Appeal gives guidance on sentencing for small boats prosecutions
The Court of Appeal in R v Ginar [2023] EWCA Crim 1121 has given guidance on the appropriate criminal sentences for those convicted for the offence of arriving (or attempting to arrive) in the UK without entry clearance, contrary to section 24(D1) of ...
18th October 2023Court of Appeal quashes conviction of person trafficked in the UK as a child
In BSG v R [2023] EWCA Crim 1041, the Court of Appeal quashed the convictions of a young Somali citizen, who suffered ‘a clear injustice’ after being ‘groomed, exploited and threatened’ [para 57] by a human trafficking gang in the UK. Backgrou ...
21st September 2023Post-Brexit spouses aren’t protected by the Withdrawal Agreement, Court of Appeal confirms
If you married an EU national in the UK after 31 December 2020, you can’t get leave to remain under the EU Settlement Scheme unless you previously had or applied for an EEA residence card or family permit as their durable partner. That remains the c ...
1st August 2023Asylum seekers don’t need ‘direct evidence’ they’re being covertly monitored
In WAS (Pakistan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWCA Civ 894, the Court of Appeal has given guidance on the lower standard of proof in asylum appeals. WAS claimed to be at risk because of his involvement with MQM-London, a UK-bas ...
31st July 2023Tribunal must consider Home Office decisions in full even when not explicitly relied on by representative
Can a judge ignore part of a Home Office decision if their representative doesn’t mention it in court? No, said the Court of Appeal in Shyti v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWCA Civ 770. The case The appellant, Mr Shyti, was chal ...
10th July 2023Reflections on the Court of Appeal’s Rwanda decision
This post reflects on last week’s extraordinary Court of Appeal judgment on the Rwanda policy. You can read our initial take on this here. Appeal to the Supreme Court The government has already announced its intention to seek leave to appeal to the ...
5th July 2023Court of Appeal finds Rwanda plan unlawful as Rwanda is not a safe third country
The Court of Appeal has found, by a majority, that the Rwanda plan is unlawful as Rwanda is not a sufficiently safe country. In short, the Rwandan authorities are not yet reliably able to sort genuine from non-genuine refugees, and therefore there is ...
29th June 2023Court of Appeal provides further guidance on unduly harsh deportation test
The unduly harsh test in deportation cases has been subject to litigation for years and we have written about it in several articles, most recently in relation to the Supreme Court case of HA (Iraq). The Court of Appeal has now published its jud ...
30th May 2023Court of Appeal confirms refusal of habeas corpus for British citizens in Syrian Camp
The appeal of C3 and C4, two British women who travelled to Syria to join the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant who were subsequently detained in a camp in northern Syria, has been dismissed. The case is C3 & Anor v Secretary of State for Forei ...
11th May 2023Challenge over continued residence dismissed after divorce finalised during imprisonment
A recent appeal concerning third country national’s right to continue residing in the UK after divorce from an EU national and release from prison was dismissed by the Court of Appeal. The case is Balogun v Secretary of State for the Home Department ...
2nd May 2023Court of Appeal re-affirms restrictive parameters of domestic violence provisions in immigration rules
The Court of Appeal has re-affirmed that the domestic violence provisions in the immigration rules are restricted to certain categories of partners and is not open to partners of Points Based System dependants, even if they have in fact suffered domes ...
28th April 2023Permission granted on additional grounds in the Rwanda case in the Court of Appeal
Yesterday, the Court of Appeal handed down a judgment dealing with applications for permission to appeal on grounds refused by the High Court. An annex to yesterday’s judgment lists the grounds granted permission by the High Court. Permission to app ...
15th March 2023Court of Appeal dismisses appeal against criminalising small boat arrivals
On 1 February 2023 Mr Justice Cavanagh made a ruling, following a preparatory hearing on 14 and 15 December 2022, that asylum seekers can be prosecuted for arriving in the UK without valid entry clearance and for assisting unlawful immigration, contra ...
6th March 2023Court of Appeal emphasises absence of corroboration is not fatal in asylum cases
The Court of Appeal has granted refugee status in a case turning on the credibility of the appellant’s evidence. MAH (Egypt) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWCA Civ 216 provides helpful guidance on the standard of proof in asylu ...
1st March 2023First legal challenge to criminalising asylum seekers reaches Court of Appeal
On 1 February 2023, the Court of Appeal heard an appeal against a preliminary ruling that asylum seekers can be prosecuted for arriving in the UK without a valid entry clearance. The case is R v. Mohamed and others. The appeal was brought on behalf of ...
7th February 2023Is Chikwamba still relevant?
Yes, although only in very limited circumstances. This was the conclusion of the Court of Appeal in Alam & Anor v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWCA Civ 30. For those who don’t know, the House of Lords held in Chikwamba v Sec ...
24th January 2023Procedural errors should be remitted says Court of Appeal
The Court of Appeal has found that the Upper Tribunal should not have continued to decide an appeal itself when it set aside a decision of the First-tier Tribunal. The case is AEB v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWCA Civ 1512. Back ...
22nd November 2022Failed asylum seeker’s false identity conviction quashed
In Elmi [2022] EWCA Crim 1428, the Court of Appeal quashed the conviction of a failed asylum seeker who had been found guilty of possessing a false identity document. Elmi had not been advised that he could use the defence of a presumptive refugee und ...
14th November 2022Secretary of State to backdate support payments after Court of Appeal dismisses case
The Court of Appeal has ruled that the Home Office provided insignificant cash payments to asylum seekers with trafficking claims during the first lockdown. The appeal was brought by the Secretary of State for the Home Department following a defeat in ...
28th October 2022Court of Appeal quash trafficking victim’s 2009 conviction
The Court of Appeal has granted an application made by a woman who was trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation, to quash her conviction from November 2009. She was convicted for using a false identity document when attempting to travel to t ...
27th October 2022Dependency under EU law: education as an essential living need
In the recent case of Singh v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWCA Civ 1054; [2022] 7 WLUK 328, the Court of Appeal turned its attention back to the EU law concept of “dependency”. The appeal was brought by an extended fa ...
20th September 2022Poorly drafted Immigration Rules continue to face disdain in long residency appeals
A ticked off Court of Appeal has refused another long residence appeal based on gaps in lawful residence, in a judgment full of digs at the Home Office in Iyieke v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWCA Civ 1147. The court made no bone ...
7th September 2022Afghan evacuation litigation latest
This post is a wrap up of recent Afghan evacuation litigation in the High Court and Court of Appeal covering the cases of: A lot of the issues cross-over so rather than give you a detailed breakdown of each case, I’ll explore the Court of Appeal’s ...
24th August 2022No appeal against Upper Tribunal refusal to set aside its own decision
There is no right of appeal against a refusal by the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) to set aside a decision disposing of proceedings. So held the Court of Appeal in DJ (Pakistan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWC ...
5th August 2022Home Office entitled to refuse Windrush citizenship applications on good character grounds
Hubert Howard arrived in the United Kingdom in 1960, aged four. He was a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies back then and was fully entitled to enter the country of his nationality. The law changed around him over the years but he carried on w ...
2nd August 2022Human trafficking case correctly handled with “anxious scrutiny”
The Court of Appeal has dismissed an Albanian woman’s judicial review challenge to a finding that she was not a human trafficking victim, holding that those deciding her case had handled it with the correct level of “anxious scrutiny” ...
19th July 2022Section 3C leave is not there to get people to ten years’ lawful residence
Marepally v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWCA Civ 855 is yet another long residence case, this time concerning a defective refusal notice. The appellant wanted to rely on the defect to argue that he had achieved ten years’ c ...
5th July 2022