UTIAC (i) Having regard to the decision of the ECtHR in Rantsev v Cyprus and Russia [2010] 51 EHRR 1, Article 4 ECHR, which outlaws slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour, encompasses also human trafficking.
(ii) Trafficking decisions are not immigration decisions within the compass of the 2002 Act, with the result that judicial review provides the appropriate mechanism for direct challenge.
(iii) Tribunals must take into account, where relevant, a decision that an appellant has been a victim of trafficking.
(iv) Where satisfied that a negative trafficking decision is perverse, Tribunals are empowered to make their own decision on whether an appellant was a victim of trafficking.
(v) Tribunals are also empowered to review a trafficking decision on the ground that it has been reached in breach of the Secretary of State’s policy guidance.
(vi) While, in principle it seems that other public law misdemeanours can also be considered by Tribunals, this issue does not arise for determination in the present appeal.
(vii) Tribunals may well be better equipped than the Competent Authority to make pertinent findings relating to trafficking.
(viii) The procedural obligations inherent in Article 4 ECHR are linked to those enshrined in the Trafficking Convention, Articles 10(2) and 18 in particular.
(ix) Any attempt to remove a trafficking victim from the United Kingdom in circumstances where the said procedural obligations have not been discharged will normally be unlawful.
Judges:
McCloskey P J
Citations:
[2016] UKUT 226 (IAC)
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Appeal from – MS (Pakistan) v Secretary of State for The Home Department SC 18-Mar-2020
The appellant failed asylum seeker, had said that he was the victim of human trafficking. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Immigration, Human Rights
Updated: 05 April 2022; Ref: scu.565668