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When Duncan Lewis first encountered LT in The Verne IRC in March 2016, he was a failed asylum seeker in immigration detention, having served a four-year sentence for cannabis cultivation, and facing imminent deportation to Vietnam.

He is now a recognised victim of trafficking, a recognised refugee, has settled his false imprisonment claim for compensation of £89,500, and can face the future with some security. It took seven years of hard fought litigation to reach that point.

The first step was to gain the trust of this damaged man. He had been the victim of the most appalling abuse by his traffickers over a prolonged period, of which his forced labour growing cannabis inside a locked building, which led to his conviction, was only a relatively minor part. His contact with immigration and policing officials had understandably left him mistrusting of authority figures, and he lacked understanding of the role of a solicitor to represent him through legal aid, which he initially perceived as being equivalent to being an arm of the state. He was also left with a deep sense of shame as a result of the abuse that he had endured, and cultural taboos meant that revealing the sexual nature of much of the abuse he suffered was particularly hard for him. However, his solicitors, Kate Newman in particular, were eventually able to gain his trust and obtain his account. Expert reports could then be prepared to support his case, which included the first official diagnosis that he had a life-long learning disability.

Further submissions were presented, and when it was accepted that there were reasonable grounds to consider him a VoT, he was released from detention, and in due course SSHD accepted that he had made a “fresh claim for asylum”, which she refused. An appeal was duly filed.

The appeal was stayed to allow a final (“Conclusive Grounds”) decision to be made on his trafficking claim. Further delay ensued, as the initial decision was negative, but following a judicial review, that decision was swiftly withdrawn and reversed.

Unfortunately, in the meantime the Secretary of State for the Home Department (SSHD) had stopped his NASS support, claiming that when she had accepted that LT had made a fresh claim, she had only meant on Article 8 grounds (and thus he was not entitled to support as an “asylum seeker”). That decision was challenged in a second judicial review, which was extraordinarily protracted (even though in the tribunal appeal proceedings themselves SSHD accepted that the decision under appeal was the refusal to grant asylum) but eventually SSHD conceded defeat on that issue too. That was not the end of the matter. The SSHD contended that, as the First-Tier Tribunal (Social Entitlement chamber) - which heard LT’s appeal against the SSHD’s initial decision to refuse NASS support - made the actual decision under judicial review the SSHD should not bear the costs, before abandoning that ground as well, when Duncan Lewis filed costs submissions.

In the meantime, LT had sent all of the materials relating to his trafficking claim (and grant) to the Home Office no fewer than three times, and sought directions from the tribunal that SSHD should explain what her case against the appeal now was, as the decision entirely undermined her previous stance. Those directions were issued, on three separate occasions over several months. Nonetheless, the SSHD did not abide by directions on the basis, claiming she had insufficient knowledge of the trafficking matter. When we sought costs due to her unreasonable conduct, and that point was set down for its own hearing, she suddenly decided that LT was a refugee after all, which brought the asylum appeal to an end.

Unfortunately, the tribunal did not award more than token costs against SSHD, resulting a third judicial review being brought against that decision, which resulted in a compromise.

In the meantime LT had begun a false imprisonment claim against SSHD, arguing that SSHD in fact had ample material to recognise him as a VoT before he even entered into immigration detention after serving his sentence. He brought that claim, which has just resolved, with the assistance of the Official Solicitor in the light of his vulnerabilities.

James Packer was the guiding public law director throughout, and advocate in the tribunal appeal. Of the many who assisted in these various matters over the years, we would like to pay particular tribute to Kate Newman, who has now left Duncan Lewis, and Sarah Mills, who represented LT over the years, variously as caseworker, a trainee solicitor and later as a qualified solicitor, before leaving Duncan Lewis and then then re-joining the company and again picking up the cudgels and seeing the matter through to its conclusion.

The team would also like to thank Galina Ward, of Landmark Chambers – who was deservedly made KC just before the end of the most recent proceedings - for her excellent efforts across all of these matters.

For advice on any public law and immigration matter contact public law director James Packer via email at jamieb@duncanlewis.com or via telephone on 07342 081719.

James litigates across a broad range of areas and regularly conducts test cases concerning issues involving access to the courts, unlawful detention, enforced removals from the UK, challenges to decisions to refuse legal aid and associated litigation. He is consistently recognised in Chambers and Partners as "exceptional" and The Legal 500 as an "outstanding lawyer".

Solicitor Sarah Mills specialises in international human rights and public law, with a particular expertise in trafficking and asylum matters alongside a wide-ranging practice in judicial review claimant challenges - particularly those related to immigration and civil liberties. She also has extensive experience of forms of civil litigation, including claims for unlawful detention and false imprisonment.

For legal advice contact her via email at sarahmi@duncanlewis.com or via telephone on020 7275 2774.