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UK: Deportation a "regrettable mistake"

01 November 2005

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The Home Office practice of deporting asylum seekers to unsafe countries in the middle of the night before they have had an opportunity to seek legal advice has been condemned by a senior judge after the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, admitted an Iraqi Kurd - Mr. A - was unlawfully deported to Iraq. British officials are searching for the man who was not allowed to make an appeal to stay. Mr. A was one of 15 Iraqi Kurds who was forced onto a plane at Stansted airport shortly after midnight on 20 November; an earlier attempt to deport the men in August had failed after legal challenges were mounted. A lawyer representing the Home Office said that "a regrettable mistake" had been made and that if he could be found he would be allowed to make an appeal to stay in the UK with his partner and two children. The events only came to light when Mr. A's fiance, who is a British citizen, turned to the Refugee Legal centre for help.

Responding to the Home Offices’ remarks, High Court judge Mr Justice Collins said: "Franky, the court has got a little fed up with how the Home Office is putting these removals into practice." He asked why it was necessary to remove people at "midnight in the middle of the weekend" and said that the practice forces costly emergency, late night applications to judges to block the deportation. "The Home Office must accept that in 99 cases out of 100 the duty judge really has no option but to make an order staying the return until the matter can be brought to court", he added, before noting that "This is happening far too often." A spokesman for the Home Office said that it had taken notice of the judges comments and "we will consult the courts as we always do in relation to any review of our practices." The spokesman then said that Britain was planning to increase the numbers of forced and voluntary removals.

Kurdish Media, http://www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=10933; BBC News 19.5.05; Times 20.12.05

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