UK: Compensation claims for illegal imprisonment of refugees
Topic
Country/Region
01 March 2001
The first compensation claims by asylum seekers against the government for being illegally imprisoned after entering Britain with false passports were won in February. After a ruling by the High Court in 1999 on a legal challenge by three asylum seekers, which upheld Article 31 of the 1951 Geneva Convention, stipulating that no asylum seeker should be penalised for illegal entry or presence (see Statewatch Vol 9 no 6), the government is now facing a wave of compensation claims by asylum seekers who were prosecuted and often imprisoned for six to 12 months for entering the UK on false documents between 1994 and 1999. Criminal proceedings are thought to have been brought against several thousand asylum seekers who entered the country during that time span, some of whom have now won their compensation claims for up to £40,000. One Kosovan couple was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment each, after they were stopped at Heathrow in 1999 on their way to Canada, and, as in most of these cases, advised by their duty solicitor to plead guilty for a lower sentencing as they had no defence to the charge.< br >< br > Their compensation claim was accepted by the Home Office in February, as was that of another couple from Albania who suffered the same fate in late 1998.< br >< br > In the 1999 ruling, Lord Justice Simon Brown confirmed the long?standing criticism of immigration detention by asylum rights and anti?racist groups by commenting that “One cannot help wondering whether perhaps increasing incidents of such prosecutions is yet another weapon in the battle to deter refugees from seeking asylum in this country”. He also pointed out the present situation where visa requirements and “carrier sanctions” had “made it well nigh impossible for refugees to travel to countries of refuge without false documents”. The Home Office will have to pay the granted compensation claims out of its ex?gratia scheme for miscarriages of justice or serious default. Solicitors are expecting payments for up to £10,000 for each “typical” case, which refers to a six months prison sentence.< br >< br >< br >< br >
Guardian 7.2.01 & 14.3.01