Secretary of State for the Home Department v Abdi [2011] EWCA Civ 242 (9 March 2011)

These conjoined appeals pose a question which is as difficult to answer as it is easy to state: in deciding whether a foreign national facing deportation has been detained for too long, does time which he has spent appealing against deportation count? If it does, then sufficiently protracted legal proceedings will sooner or later secure his release however weak his case and however strong the reasons for detaining him. If it does not, then a detainee with a sound legal challenge to removal or deportation may be penalised for asserting his rights by years of incarceration. So the question inexorably raises another question: is there a middle way?

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