Britain forced to let deported illegal immigrant family BACK IN after human rights ruling
THE Home Office has been forced to let a family of Nigerian immigrants that were deported from Britain back in to the country.
A court ruled that the government must find the woman and her five-year-old son by tomorrow or they will face contempt of court proceedings.
The move casts doubt over plans by Home Secretary Theresa May to deport illegal immigrants before they have a chance to launch protracted appeals.
The woman, who first came to the UK from Nigeria in 1991 and worked illegally for years, attempted to claim asylum in 2010 because she feared persecution.
Officials refused the claim and she was deported in January this year.
But now Justice Cranston has said the child's best interests were not taken into account and the family could be forced into poverty in Africa.
His ruling slammed the Home Office's “flawed” decision to send the child, identified only as RA, and his mother BF back to Nigeria.
The judge said: “In not taking into account the implications of BF’s mental health for RA, and the risk of that degenerating in the Nigerian context and the likely consequences of removal, the Secretary of State failed to have regard to BA’s best interests as a primary consideration.”
The Home Office has been granted an appeals hearing over the case.
A spokesman for the Home Office told the Independent: “We are unable to comment due to the ongoing nature of this case.”
Mrs May’s policy would build on the “deport first, appeal later” regime for foreign criminals, under which 600 were put on a plane in the past year.
Judges rejected lawyers’ claims that the scheme, introduced under the latest Immigration Act, was unlawful.
One case involved a Nigerian who claimed she had a human right to family life here despite being convicted of repeatedly beating her child.
Now Mrs May wants to extend the principle from criminals to people who are here without permission, including those who have overstayed their visas.
People who might suffer “serious or irreversible harm” if returned home would be exempted.
But overall, the Home Office says, the policy could stop thousands of lengthy and costly legal challenges to removal in which illegal immigrants have extended their stay by months and even years.
There are an estimated one million illegal immigrants in Britain and campaigners doubt whether all could be tracked down and removed.
