The claimant had sought asylum as a child, declaring that he had not applied for asylum elsewhere. His fingerprints were matched to an applicant in Belgium.
Held: Wyn Williams J construed section 55 and the statutory guidance referred to in section 55(3) as imposing upon the decision maker, the UK Borders Agency caseworker, a duty to treat the best interests of the child concerned as a primary consideration when exercising an immigration/asylum function. Section 55(3) placed a personal responsibility upon the decision maker to have regard to the statutory guidance which included the requirement, at paragraph 6, that the decision maker must apply the guidance as to the welfare of children, and, ‘if they decide to depart from it, have clear reasons for doing so’. The judge found that since UKBA had not addressed the claimant’s case that a removal to Belgium would be ‘detrimental to his welfare’ the decision made was unlawful.
Wyn Williams J
[2010] EWHC 2614 (Admin), [2011] Imm AR 164
Bailii
Borders Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 55
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Castle and Others v Commissioner of Police for The Metropolis Admn 8-Sep-2011
The claimants, all under 17 years old, took a peaceful part in a substantial but disorderly demonstration in London. The police decided to contain the section of crowd which included the claimants. The claimants said that the containment of children . .
Cited – Alladin, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for The Home Department CA 16-Oct-2014
The court was asked whether the decisions of the Secretary of State to give limited (discretionary) leave to remain as opposed to indefinite leave to remain are unlawful because they were given in breach of the Secretary of State’s duty under . .
Cited – Ali, Regina (on The Application of) v The Secretary of State for The Home Department Admn 9-Jan-2015
The claimant complained that the respondent when granting her a time limited leave to remain only, had by making her immigration status incompatible with that of her five children failed to comply with her obligations under the 2009 Act. The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Immigration, Children
Updated: 01 November 2021; Ref: scu.425575