Illegal Kicked Out . . . After 15 Appeals
Emily Nash, The Sun, January 19, 2012
An illegal immigrant who made 15 attempts to stay in the UK in a ten-year period can finally be deported, an appeal court judge ruled yesterday.
The Pakistani, 38, spent a decade on the asylum “merry-go-round” after being ordered to leave, Lord Justice Ward said.
He arrived in Britain in 1998 in circumstances which “lacked credibility” — yet the “carousel” had gone “round and round”, with endless fresh claims blocking his removal.
But yesterday the Court of Appeal in London dismissed the man’s latest attempt. It concluded that a judge in the High Court had been right to refuse an application for a judicial review of a Home Office decision to deport.
Lord Justice Ward said in a written judgment it was “time the music stopped” and the “merry-go-round” stopped turning.
He added: “His claim for judicial review is dismissed. Enough of the whirligig.”
He said Home Secretary Theresa May was now “entitled to take steps to remove him”.
Lord Justice Tomlinson and Sir Mark Potter, who also heard evidence in July, backed the decision.
Lord Justice Ward said: “This is another of those frustrating appeals which characterise — and, some may think, disfigure — certain aspects of the work in the immigration field.
“One of those whirligig cases where an asylum seeker goes up and down on the merry-go-round leaving one wondering when the music will ever stop.”
The man, referred to in court only as TM, had an asylum claim refused in August 2000, with “directions set for his removal” in November 2001.
He then made an application claiming removal would breach his human rights — but this was refused within weeks.
Further claims followed in 2004, 2005 and 2006 — ending with his latest appeal for judicial review.
The judge said: “On my count it was the 15th submission of a fresh claim.”
