Fast Track Detention Suspended – Requesting Your Release on Temporary Admission or Bail, and A New Home Office Decision
The fast track detention system has been temporarily suspended after the Court of Appeal ordered the Government to suspend the process after the high court ruled the system was unlawful and contained structural unfairness.
What Does This Mean In Practice?
Immigration officials can still initially detain certain Asylum seekers and fast-track their applications, but if the application is refused and they choose to appeal, then they have the right to seek bail whilst further investigations take place.
There are around 300 to 400 detainees currently awaiting removal from the UK, which now have the right to seek bail while awaiting their case to be reconsidered.
Are you one of them?
If so, our team of specialist UK Immigration solicitors are the four steps you need to take.
Step 1 – Submit a Temporary Submission Application
A Temporary Submission Application is an application to the Home Office to allow you temporary admission into the UK whilst your initial application is being reviewed.
If you are granted temporary admission, you must abide by certain conditions. These are:
- To report back to the Immigration authorities at a particular date and time
- To live at a particular address; and
- Refrain from seeking or participating in Employment
You may also have to report regularly to an Immigration office to sign in, or accept 'electronic monitoring' or 'tagging'. This will usually mean having to wear a special piece of equipment that allows the Home Office to check you are staying at a specified address.
Breaking any of these conditions could result in you being re-detained.
Step Two – File a Bail Application
If you are currently detained and are appealing the decision to remove you from the UK, following the suspension of the fast track detention system, you have the right to apply to the Immigration Tribunal for bail.
If you are granted bail, it means you can leave the detention centre, provided you abide by certain conditions that are set by the Tribunal. If you break these conditions, a sum of money will need to be paid. Examples of bail conditions include:
- You will reside at a specific address
- You must abide by a curfew
- You will wear an electronic tagging device
Ideally, you will have one or two people who live in the UK act as ‘sureties’. They will guarantee that you will not break the conditions of your bail and are liable to pay an amount of money set by the Court if you do.
If you break your conditions of bail, you can be immediately re-detained.
Step 3 – Consider a Claim for judicial review for Unlawful Detention or a False Imprisonment Claim
If you have been detained unlawfully, you can bring a claim against Immigration officials, the police or any other government departments responsible for detaining you.
judicial review involves the Court reviewing a decision by a public body and deciding whether or not it was lawful. The high court has already declared the fast track detention procedure unlawful in the case of Detention Action v First-Tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) & Ors [2015] EWHC 1689 (Admin). To key reasons why the system is considered structurally unfair are:
- Asylum seekers are deprived of their liberty for administrative convenience; and
- Given the extremely short time-scales involved in the process, lawyers are not given adequate time to prepare a proper appeal. Given half of all appellants are unrepresented by legal counsel; the process is even more unfair to them as they could not possibly be expected to prepare an appeal in such a short time.
False Imprisonment
False imprisonment is the illegal confinement of an individual against his or her will. It is possible to recover damages for false imprisonment. If no actual damage has occurred from the illegal confinement, the Court may award nominal damages in recognition of the invasion of his or her rights. A plaintiff can also claim damages for mental and physical suffering caused by the confinement.
Step 4 – Request the Home Office to Treat Application as De Novo
As the fast track detention scheme has been declared unlawful, any appeal on a decision decided under the scheme may be heard de novo, (meaning heard afresh, without any consideration to previous decisions).
It is imperative that you, or your legal representative write to the home office to request that any previous adverse decisions made under the unlawful scheme be disregarded in any appeal.
To find out more about the Government’s decision to suspend the fast track detention scheme, or if you are currently being detained under the scheme, please contact our London office on 0207 936 9960 to discuss your situation with one of our Immigration experts.