The three appellants were deprived of their nationality when they were in Pakistan where they had been since 2009. One of their arguments before SIAC was that they had not been allowed to return to the UK to take part in their appeals. SIAC decided a preliminary issue against them which was whether the appeals should be allowed because it was impossible to decide them fairly as the appellants were in Pakistan. They submitted that they were inhibited from giving full instructions to their solicitors who had visited Pakistan three times, although they had put in written statements. The Secretary of State pointed out that they had not engaged with the substance of the OPEN national security case against them. They submitted that SIAC should either have allowed their appeals or in their parallel application for judicial review the deprivation orders should be quashed and orders made that the appeals be heard again with the appellants enabled to return to the UK to pursue them. The appellants challenged the withdrawal of their British citizenship arising from alleged membership of terrorist organisation.
Burnett LJ approved the ‘simple answer’ of SIAC in that case to the appellant’s argument that the timing of the deprivation order made it impossible for them to return, which was that there are two stages to the statutory process: the deprivation decision and the deprivation order and SIAC had no jurisdiction to consider an appeal against an order, let alone its timing. Burnett LJ noted that the orders were made when they were to prevent the appellants from travelling to the UK but that timing had nothing to do with potential appeals, rather, as in L1, they had been made to safeguard national security.
Briggs, Burnett, Lindblom LJJ
[2016] EWCA Civ 560
Bailii
British Nationality Act 1981 40
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Begum v Special Immigration Appeals Commission and Others CA 16-Jul-2020
Return To UK to fight Citizenship Withdrawal
The appellant had, as a 15 year old, left to go to Iraq to be the ISIL terrorist group. She married an ISIL fighter and they had three children, the last one dying. Her citizenship of the UK had been withdrawn by the respondent leaving an . .
These lists may be incomplete.
Updated: 14 July 2021; Ref: scu.565679