All Articles: damages

The Home Secretary has conceded the claims of two former immigration detainees relating to a power outage at Harmondsworth immigration removal centre (IRC), a detention centre next to Heathrow airport. The Home Secretary not only paid both claimants substantial amounts in damages for unlawfully detaining them, but also declared that...

11th December 2023
BY Dominic Chambers

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 the Home Department & Anor [2023]...

30th November 2023
BY Sonia Lenegan

In R (Abulbakr) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWHC 1183 (Admin), the High Court has ordered the Home Office to pay a detainee £17,500 for 40 days of unlawful detention caused by unreasonable delay in providing a release address. The figure is high for the length...

12th July 2022
BY Alex Schymyck

The Court of Appeal has held that the unlawful removal of a vulnerable Afghan child and the 18 months of disruption to his private life entitles him to damages under the Human Rights Act 1998 and under EU law. The case is QH (Afghanistan) v Secretary of State for the...

12th April 2022
BY Jed Pennington

The Upper Tribunal has decided that it has the power to transfer damages claims resulting from judicial review proceedings to the County Court. The tribunal held that its incidental powers mirror those enjoyed by the High Court, which routinely transfers judicial reviews to the County Court once the public law...

10th January 2022
BY Alex Schymyck

The Home Office may have to pay compensation in the case of major blunders, the Court of Appeal has said in a significant new ruling, Husson v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWCA Civ 329. Challenging an impressive new low by the Home Office, Mr Husson sought...

16th March 2020
BY Karma Hickman

The Court of Appeal in ZA (Pakistan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWCA Civ 146 has made a plea to lawyers to transfer their wrongful detention claims to the Queen’s Bench Division or County Court once the detention issue has been resolved. ZA’s case started life...

17th February 2020
BY Larry Lock

The European Court of Human Rights has developed Article 5 ECHR beyond domestic law and potentially created a dramatic increase in the amount of damages payable for unlawful detention caused by a breach of detention policy. VM v United Kingdom (No. 2) (application no. 62824/16) is only a decision of...

1st May 2019
BY Alex Schymyck

In R (Majewski) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWHC 473 (Admin) the High Court has concluded that EU citizens who were unlawfully detained solely because they were homeless should be paid damages at the normal rate. In the important Gureckis judgment of December 2017, the High Court had ruled that...

5th March 2019
BY Alex Schymyck

The High Court has ruled that a claimant is entitled to extra unlawful detention damages for frustration and anxiety where the Home Office fails to provide a release address. The guidance on this issue provided by R (Diop) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWHC 3420 (Admin) is...

31st December 2018
BY Alex Schymyck

In R (Gedi) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] EWCA Civ 409 the Court of Appeal reversed a High Court decision that the words “restriction as to residence” in paragraph 2(5) of Schedule 3 to the Immigration Act 1971 empowered the Secretary of State to impose a curfew on people released...

4th July 2018
BY Nick Nason

R (Aboro) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWHC 1436 (Admin) is an unlawful detention claim about how conflicting psychiatric evidence should be interpreted. The Secretary of State relied upon the evidence of a detention centre doctor, in preference to experts instructed by Mr Aboro, to justify...

26th June 2018
BY Alex Schymyck

R (Eroje) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWHC 1010 (Admin) is a shocking story of Home Office incompetence which led to the unnecessary and unlawful detention of someone who had made repeated attempts to leave the UK voluntarily. Ms Eroje is a Nigerian national and spent...

29th May 2018
BY Alex Schymyck

Asylum seekers routinely share their most sensitive information with the Home Office in order to support their asylum claims, write Daniel Carey and Zac Sammour. They do so in good faith, trusting that the Home Office will treat that information with the sensitivity and confidentiality that it warrants. But what happens when the...

16th February 2018
BY danielcarey

How can you win £266,536.14 in damages and walk away without a penny? If those who should pay succeed in divesting themselves of their assets and if the costs of litigation swallow up all that you do manage to recover. R (Tirkey) v The Director of Legal Aid Casework &...

10th January 2018
BY Alison Harvey

A month ago, Free Movement reported on the detention of Abdulrahman Mohammed. He was awarded the substantial sum of £78,500 by the High Court after being detained unlawfully by the Home Office. In a subsequent judgment, the same court has increased the amount the Home Office must pay, after it...

18th December 2017
BY Nick Nason

Last week Suraj Saptoka was awarded £24,515.43 by order of a Deputy High Court judge for false imprisonment in Sapkota v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] EWHC 2857 (Admin). Mr Saptoka had been unlawfully detained for 36 days after immigration officials wrongfully decided he was attempting to extend...

24th November 2017
BY Clare Duffy

Both R (Jollah) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (No. 2) [2017] EWHC 2821 (Admin) and R (Lupepe) v SSHD [2017] EWHC 2690 (Admin) were heard on 11, 12 and 13 October 2017 by Mr Justice Lewis. It makes sense to look at them together because they both follow up on R...

22nd November 2017
BY Nath Gbikpi

Abdulrahman Mohammed was last week awarded £78,500 by order of a High Court judge. The career criminal had been detained unlawfully under immigration powers on three occasions by the Home Office for a total period exceeding a year. Unusually, with both parties in agreement that the detention was unlawful, the...

14th November 2017
BY Nick Nason

Substantial damages of £10,500 have been awarded to a claimant who was unlawfully detained for a period of 70 days. The Home Office had failed to serve the Claimant with notice of a decision on his application to vary his leave to remain in the UK before detaining him, rendering...

7th June 2017
BY Rebecca Carr

A High Court judge has awarded the family member of an EU national a total of £136,048 in damages. The award consists of £76,578 for false imprisonment and £59,470 for breach of EU law. The Home Office is also criticised for having made “inaccurate and misleading” submissions to previous judges...

30th March 2016
BY Colin Yeo

Following the judgment last year in R (on the application of Zewdu) v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2015] EWHC 2148 (Admin) (09 June 2015) solicitors Duncan Lewis have revealed that the Home Office agreed to pay a record £40,000 in damages for the 19 month delay in...

8th February 2016
BY Colin Yeo

The Irish High Court has awarded a claimant over €100,000 in damages against the Irish government for breach of EU law free movement rights. The case is an example of the award of damages awarded for losses caused by a Member State breaching EU law under the Francovich (C-6/90 and...

22nd January 2015
BY Colin Yeo
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