The Secretary of State for The Home Department v AJ (Zimbabwe): CA 20 Oct 2016

The court heard appeals with regard to two foreign criminals sentenced to between 12 months’ and four years’ imprisonment for criminal offences and then made subject to a deportation order by the Secretary of State; in each case the deportee successfully appealed on article 8 ECHR grounds to the First Tier Tribunal (FTT); in each case the principal basis of the FTT decision was that deportation would be a disproportionate interference with family life because it would have a significant detrimental effect upon the children of the deported criminal which outweighed the very powerful public interest in deporting foreign criminals and constituted ‘exceptional circumstances’ within the meaning of rule 398 of the Immigration Rules; and in each case a further appeal by the Secretary of State to the Upper Tribunal (UT) failed on the grounds that the decision reached by the FTT displayed no misdirection in law and was an assessment which it could legitimately reach on the evidence.

Elias, Vos LJJ
[2016] EWCA Civ 1012
Bailii
England and Wales

Immigration, Human Rights

Updated: 24 January 2022; Ref: scu.570178