A and Others, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: Admn 21 Jan 2008

A complained of the unreasonable length of time for which had suffered administrative detention after completing a prison sentence and pending deportation.
Held: Mitting J discussed the detention: ‘In those circumstances, for continued detention to be lawful two questions have to be capable of being answered. First, by when does the Secretary of State expect to be able to deport A? Secondly, what is the basis for that expectation? Mr Patel, on instructions, is understandably unable to answer either of those questions, other than by the generality that the Secretary of State expects to be able to deport him within a reasonable time. Mr Patel realises that that begs the question. In my view, against the history that I have recited, there is simply no basis for concluding that A can be expected to be deported within the near future, nor can anybody, let alone the Secretary of State, give an answer to the first of those questions. An impasse has been reached in A’s case. It has been reached after the lapse of many months of detention. His detention has now become unlawful.I reach that conclusion notwithstanding that he has committed a serious criminal offence and that there is in his case the risk of absconding. Those are factors which have to be weighed in the balance. Were there grounds for believing that his application for emergency travel documents would soon be resolved favourably, then those factors would have led me to uphold the lawfulness of his detention. But absent any basis for concluding that he can soon be deported, those factors do not outweigh the claim that he has to conditional release . .’

Judges:

Mitting J

Citations:

[2008] EWHC 142 (Admin)

Links:

Bailii

Cited by:

CitedMH, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for The Home Department CA 14-Oct-2010
The claimant complained that his administrative detention for over 40 months had been unlawful. He now appealed against a finding that it had been lawful save for the final two months.
Held: The appeal failed. The period of time for which he . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Immigration

Updated: 13 July 2022; Ref: scu.264126