Immigration Detention

Our work with immigration detainees, particularly children in detention, has been a major focus in recent years. The team, has been praised for its 'empathy to clients but does not allow this to obscure the professional judgement of a case'.
Chambers Directory 2009

Our work

We do not give immigration advice or assist detainees in bail applications before the immigration courts, but organisations such as Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) may be able to assist in a bail application.

The focus of our work in the area of immigration detention has been in holding those in power to account and obtaining redress in both the public and private law courts for those who are detained wrongly or in very poor conditions.

Our experience

We have established in ID and others v Home Office, CA 2005 that a private law action for damages can be brought for immigrants detained unreasonably or in breach of policy without the necessity of first bringing public law proceedings. We have negotiated a number of settlements in private law actions for refugees and asylum seekers who have been wrongfully detained or kept in very bad conditions of detention.

We have brought public law court proceedings to obtain the release of a detainee who was on bail to the Court, those who were being detained unreasonably or in breach of policy and those who were being detained where there was no prospect of their removal in a reasonable timescale.

We have advised on pursuing matters to the European Court of Human Rights when remedies in the UK have been exhausted.