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Duncan Lewis Successfully Represents Claimant Unlawfully Detained in Prison under Immigration Powers (2 July 2015)

Date: 02/07/2015
Duncan Lewis, Main Solicitors, Duncan Lewis Successfully Represents Claimant Unlawfully Detained in Prison under Immigration Powers

Legal 500 “Top Tier” firm Duncan Lewis Solicitors have successfully represented a Claimant who had been detained for over two years in prison under immigration powers.

The Claimant’s two years in detention followed an extraordinary period of unlawful detention of four years and eleven months in which it was found that at no point during this time period was it possible to effect removal, which in 2011, led to the landmark judgment on Sino v SSHD.

During the recent period of detention, the Claimant suffered a significant deterioration in his mental health which led to a transfer under the Mental Health Act to a psychiatric hospital. He has been diagnosed with a litany of psychiatric illnesses including paranoid schizophrenia. Following treatment, he was returned to detention at HMP Wandsworth.

Following the hearing which took place on 16 and 17 June 2015, Mr Justice Hayden found that the client was unlawfully detained between 13 July 2013 and 10 December 2013.

During proceedings, it was noted that in total, the client was detained under immigration powers for a period of seven years and two months. Although there has been one man who was detained for a longer period than this, Mr Justice Hayden noted that;

“These periods total seven years and two months. Such a time span is a disturbing period for the executive to detain an individual under purely administrative powers. It would appear to be one of the longest aggregate periods that HM Government has ever detained an individual for in such circumstances. […] the powers of the Secretary of State do not extend generally to permitting her to curtail an individual's liberty on these broad behavioural grounds. Hers is an administrative power of detention, circumscribed by the requirement that there be some prospect of achieving deportation. This fundamental premise is rooted in the respect for liberty and personal autonomy and traceable to Magna Carta”.

Duncan Lewis solicitors continues to represent the client and is considering a potential appeal in relation to the other parts of the judgment.


Toufique Hossain, Director of the Duncan Lewis Public Law Department stated:

“It is beyond belief that following such a landmark decision back in 2011, the Home Office would have the nerve to re-detain this mentally ill man for so many more months”

Full case judgment can be found by clicking here.

Duncan Lewis solicitors continue to represent the client and are considering a potential appeal in relation to the other parts of the judgment.

Claimant’s Legal Team

Toufique Hossain: Solicitor; Jamie Bell: Trainee Solicitor.

Counsel instructed:

Chris Buttler: Matrix Chambers

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