Challenging a deportation order

By Oshin Shahiean, managing partner at OTS Solicitors

Deportation has been back in the news in recent weeks with the recommencement of “deportation flights” from the UK to Jamaica after the cessation of such flights in light of the Windrush scandal.

The Home Office justified the deportations on the basis that each person being deported on the first such flight was a “foreign national offender convicted of a serious crime”. However, Immigration campaigners and some sections of the media argue that some of the offences that those being deported had been convicted of were relatively minor, justifying a short prison term. One reported example is that of a 23-year-old man who came to the UK at age 14 and was subject to a deportation order after having served a prison term of eight months for dangerous driving.

Campaigners also say that the punishment of jail and deportation means that migrant offenders, many of whom have been brought up in the UK from being young children, are being punished twice, prison for the offence and then deportation from the only country that many of the deportees have ever known.

The top London immigration solicitors recognise that deportation does not just affect the deportee. Many of those who are now being put on deportation flights will have family and in particular children in the UK. It is all very well to say that the deportee brought the deportation on themselves but their children and family did not. One such example reported in the media is the case of a 39-year-old man who had lived in the UK from the age of 12. After serving time in prison for assault he was deported to Jamaica, leaving his two children age six and seven in the UK with family.

Campaigners have also complained that some of the people who were expecting to be placed on the first of the resumed deportation flights were given last minute reprieves after interventions by Immigration solicitors or media coverage of their cases. The top London immigration solicitors recognise that deportation decisions should not have to be reviewed at the last minute as that means the public does not have confidence in the original decision to deport and the deportee and his family suffer unnecessary stress and anxiety.

How can OTS Solicitors help?

If you are at risk of deportation or a process known as administrative removal, the London based specialist Immigration solicitors, OTS Solicitors, will be able to help you. Please call us on 0203 959 9123 to discuss how a member of our specialist team of Immigration solicitors can help you.

“What is deportation” may seem an obvious question but may migrants and people in the media talk of “deportation” when they are actually referring to a legal process known as “administrative removal”. You may think that deportation and administrative removal are the same but different laws and Immigration rules apply, although if the Home Office succeeds both deportation and administrative removal results in the removal of a migrant from the UK normally contrary to their wishes.

Who can be deported from the UK?

Deportation is the removal of a non-EEA citizen who is also a foreign criminal from the UK. The Immigration Act refers to the deportation of non-British citizens but currently different rules apply to EEA and non-EEA citizens. Depending on what happens with Brexit, the law and Immigration rules may be changed to make the rules on the deportation of EEA and non-EEA citizens the same.

The Home Office has the power to deport a non-EEA citizen who is a foreign criminal and it is thought that the person’s presence in the UK “is not conducive to the public good”.

If a foreign criminal has been sentenced to a prison term and the court recommends deportation of a person over the age of seventeen, then the Home Office must automatically make a decision to deport the non-EEA citizen. The best London immigration solicitors advise that if you are a non-EEA citizen facing criminal charges, it is essential to get Immigration advice about the effect of any sentencing on you and your family. That is because a deportation order may not only affect the non-EEA citizen who has committed a criminal offence. The Home Office has the power to deport the spouse, civil partner or a child under the age of eighteen of a person who is ordered to be deported.

Grounds to object to a deportation order

The main exception to the making of a deportation order is that the deportation order would amount to a breach of Human Rights or a breach of the Refugee Conventions.

The best London immigration solicitors advise that appealing against a deportation order is a very technical process depending on whether the deportation order is an automatic or a conducive deportation. There is no automatic right of appeal unless the person who is subject to the deportation order can raise a Human Rights claim or say that deportation would be contrary to the UK’s obligations under the Refugee Convention. Depending on the nature of the deportation order the person subject to the deportation order may have a right to an in-country appeal if their Human Rights claim is “not certified”. If the Human Rights claim is “certified”, the Home Office can proceed with the deportation order as the Home Office has concluded that the person would not suffer serious irreversible harm by being deported prior to the appeal hearing. However, top London immigration solicitors can appeal against the certification by means of a judicial review application.

The routes to an appeal hearing or a judicial review application are complicated. It therefore pays to get the best London immigration solicitors’ advice if you are facing a deportation order and want to challenge it on Human Rights grounds.

A deportation order is an order requiring a person to leave the UK. The best London immigration solicitors advise that if a deportation order is made, it has the following effects:

• Requires the persons removal from the UK;

• Authorises their detention until removal;

• Prohibits re-entry to the UK whilst the order is in force;

• Stops or invalidates any permission to enter or to remain in the UK that was given either prior to or during the duration of the deportation order.

The draconian effect of a deportation order means that it is vital that if you are at risk of a deportation order being made against you that you get legal advice from top London immigration solicitors.

How can OTS Solicitors help?

OTS Solicitors are specialist in Immigration law matters. OTS Solicitors are recommended for Immigration law in the Legal 500. OTS Solicitors have Law Society accredited solicitors status as trusted specialists in Immigration law.