UK’s fast-track asylum system ruled unlawful

Government appeal system for processing asylum seekersā€™ applications, which has been in use for a decade, must be quashed, high court rules

A fast-track immigration appeals procedure under which thousands of asylum seekers have been locked up each year has been declared unlawful by the high court.

Mr Justice Nichol said the process under which rejected asylum seekers arriving in Britain are detained and given seven days to appeal was ā€œstructurally unfairā€.

The judge said the rules put asylum seekers ā€œat a serious procedural disadvantageā€ and said it ā€œlooks uncomfortably akin to ā€¦ sacrificing fairness on the altar of speed and convenienceā€.

 

[…]Jerome Phelps, the director of Detention Action, which brought the legal challenge, said he was pleased that the appeals process had been found to be not just unlawful but alsoĀ ultra vires.

 

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Ā Home affairs editor,Ā