The UK Home Office violated European Union regulations and unlawfully imprisoned asylum seekers, who are eligible for compensation from the government, the UK Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th November, 2019) The UK Home Office violated European Union regulations and unlawfully imprisoned asylum seekers, who are eligible for compensation from the government, the UK Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday.Five asylum seekers who arrived in the United Kingdom in 2014 and 2015 brought the Home Office to court, arguing that they had been imprisoned unlawfully according to European Union rules, termed the Dublin III regulation.
The Supreme Court ruled that two men from Afghanistan, two men from Iraq and a woman from Iran, "were all detained unlawfully and are entitled to damages under domestic law for false imprisonment," court records stated.
The Dublin III regulation established the criteria and mechanisms for determining which EU state is responsible for examining asylum applications. The legislation outlines that individuals should claim asylum in the first EU country they arrive in. If they are then registered in another EU country, they can sent back to the country they first applied for asylum in, a UK Home Office report of 2019 stated.
Crucially, the Dublin III regulation outlines that asylum seekers can be imprisoned, pending removal to another EU country, only in the event that they are a significant flight risk, the report also added.
Judges commented that the Home Office's argument that its detention policy met the standards of the Dublin III legislation between 2014 and 2017 was "not persuasive," court documents stated.
Wednesday's judgment was another setback for the Home Office in the wake of the 2018 so-called Windrush scandal. Details emerged that migrants who came to the United Kingdom from Caribbean countries between the 1940s and the 1970s had been declared illegal migrants and faced the threat of deportation since they had no official papers confirming their status.
On Tuesday, the UK High Court heard claims that the Home Office was profiting from citizenship applications from UK-born children and young adults.
