Tribunal decisions

The decision

Upper Tribunal
(Immigration and Asylum Chamber) Appeal Numbers: PA/02897/2015
PA/02899/2015
pa/02900/2015

THE IMMIGRATION ACTS

Heard at Field House
Decision & Reasons Promulgated
On 12 September 2016
On 28 October 2016

Before

UPPER TRIBUNAL JUDGE PERKINS

Between

SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT
Appellant
and

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(ANONYMITY DIRECTION MADE)
Respondents
Representation:
For the Appellant: Ms J Isherwood, Home Office Presenting Officer
For the Respondents: Ms S Sharma, instructed by S & S Immigration Law
DECISION AND REASONS
1. Pursuant to rule 14 of the Tribunal Procedure (Upper Tribunal) Rules 2008 I make an order prohibiting the disclosure or publication of any matter likely to lead members of the public to identify the respondent. Breach of this order can be punished as a contempt of court. I make this order because one of the respondents is a minor.
2. This is an appeal by the Secretary of State against the decision of the First-tier Tribunal allowing the appeal of the present respondents (hereinafter the claimants) against the decision of the Secretary of State to deport them from the United Kingdom. The first claimant has been sent to prison for fifteen months and this sentence of imprisonment is sufficient to invoke procedures often called "automatic deportation". The family members of people due to be deported are themselves due to deportation not because they have behaved discreditably but because their right to be in the United Kingdom depends upon the right of the person who is to be deported.
3. The Rules are very strict but they are not completely inflexible. There are certain caveats which can be invoked to prevent deportation but they do not apply in this case. I say that with some confidence because the First-tier Tribunal Judge has thought about them and said in terms that they do not apply. The appeal cannot succeed under the Rules. The biggest problem is that the third claimant, a young person who appears to be doing well at school and is settled in the United Kingdom had not been in the United Kingdom for seven years at the time when the application was made and he was therefore excluded from most of the saving provisions. It must not be assumed that he would have been permitted to remain if he had accumulated seven years' residence. It is my no means the case that young people who have lived in the United Kingdom for seven years cannot be removed or, if they can't, that their close relatives who have committed offences should be allowed to remain. The possibility of any of the claimants satisfying the Rules does not apply in this case. The First-tier Tribunal was quite clear that the appeal could not be allowed under the Rules.
4. I asked Ms Sharma to confirm that she accepted that the claimants could not be permitted to remain under the Rules. There was no challenge to that finding and Ms Sharma confirmed that she could not bring an argument on that basis. That is not in any way because she is not able to present cases properly but because she recognises the effect of the Rules and knows that she would assist no one by advancing hopeless cases.
5. The First-tier Tribunal allowed the appeal outside the Rules being particularly concerned about the rights of the child. The difficulty with that is that deportation appeals generally cannot be allowed outside the Rules, indeed it is properly the case that deportation appeals cannot be allowed outside the Rules at all but if there are circumstances when they can be they do not exist here. The deportation Rules are intended to be strict and they have safeguards to prevent outrageous decisions. The case does not come within those safeguards, quite simply it should not have been allowed.
6. It follows therefore that I have to set aside the decision of the First-tier Tribunal and substitute a decision dismissing the appeals against the Secretary of State's decision in all cases and that is what I do.
Notice of Decision
The Secretary of State's appeal is allowed. I set aside the decision of the First-tier Tribunal and I substitute a decision in each case dismissing the claimant's appeal against the Secretary of State's decision.

Signed

Jonathan Perkins
Judge of the Upper Tribunal

Dated 27 October 2016