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UK: No family rights

01 September 1995

The High Court confirmed in August that husbands and wives of British citizens are in a worse position than spouses of European Union citizens when it comes to deportation. European Union law, which gives EU workers, students and others free movement rights to come and live in Britain, also guarantees the right of family members to join them. Someone married to an EU citizen can only be deported on very serious grounds of public policy such as serious criminal offences. But marriage to a British citizen confers no such rights, and does not prevent deportation for overstaying. Kulwinder Phull, an Indian citizen married to a British man, had asked the High Court to stop the Home office deporting her for overstaying. Mrs Phull had an unhappy first marriage and when she left her violent husband she lost her right to stay in Britain. Since then she has married again and has a British child, but the Home Office insists on deporting her. Her lawyers argued that her British husband was a European citizen by virtue of the Maastricht treaty, and had the same rights to family unity with his wife as other EU citizens. The court disagreed, saying that Maastricht added nothing to pre-existing rights and that EU law did not apply in a purely domestic situation. Their ruling leaves several hundred couples and families in danger of forcible separation. Mrs Phull is expected to appeal against the ruling. R v Home Secretary ex p Phull, Independent 18.8.95.