Immigration – Deportation

Immigration – Deportation. The Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) had erred in its approach to the public interest when determining the appellant’s appeal against a deportation order made by the respondent Secretary of State on the grounds that the appellant was a foreign criminal. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, held that the correct approach to be taken to the public interest, in the balance to be undertaken by a tribunal, was to recognise that the public interest in the deportation of foreign criminals had a moveable rather than a fixed quality. In the present case, the appellant had lived his entire life in the UK, which was materially different from the paradigm foreign criminal who had arrived in the UK from another state and had then committed crimes.

This case show the correct approach to public interest (a factor enshrined in ss 117A-117D of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002) in deporting foreign criminals. Court of Appeal confirmed that the public interest has variable, rather than fixed weight.

The appellant succedded in his appeal

Source: LexisNexis

The judgment is available at Bailii