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European Court rejects refugee's detention
claim against the UK
31.1.2008
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January 31, 2008
The European Court of Human Rights has turned down
an application filed by an Iraqi refugee against the
British government over its routine detention of
asylum seekers in so-called fast-track removal
centres.
The case could have had repercussions on the Maltese
detention policy had it been upheld.
Kurdish Iraqi Shayan Baram Saadi, who had been
granted asylum in the UK, immediately claimed asylum
upon arrival at Heathrow on December 30, 2000 and
was granted temporary admission. He cooperated with
the authorities but was subsequently detained at the
Oakington Reception Centre, a new detention facility
for asylum seekers considered unlikely to abscond
and to whom a "fast-track" procedure could be
applied.
After originally having been denied asylum, he
successfully appealed and was granted refugee status
in January 2003.
Dr Saadi initiated a seven-year long legal battle
against his detention, that really lasted seven
days, and the fact that he was not given a
justification until 76 hours after he had been sent
to Oakington.
The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human
Rights confirmed by 11 votes to six a sentence by a
first court that had ruled against Dr Saadi's claim
that his right to liberty under the European
Convention of Human Rights had been breached.
The court however upheld unanimously the claim that
his right to be informed promptly of the reasons for
arrest had been breached.
In its sentence, the Grand Chamber noted that while
the general rule set out in article 5 of the
Convention was that everyone had the right to
liberty, the same article did provide an exception,
allowing states to control the liberty of aliens in
an immigration context.
It did not accept, as Dr Saadi claimed, that as soon
as an asylum seeker had surrendered himself to the
immigration authorities he was seeking to effect an
"authorised" entry, with the result that detention
could not be justified under the first part of
article 5.
The court concluded that, given the difficult
administrative problems with which the United
Kingdom was confronted during the period in
question,www.ekurd.net
with an escalating flow
of huge numbers of asylum seekers, it was not
incompatible with article 5 to detain the applicant
for seven days in suitable conditions to enable his
claim to asylum to be processed speedily.
A positive ruling would have dealt a serious blow to
the UK government's policy for the speedy removal of
failed asylum-seekers and, possibly, even have had
repercussions on Malta's detention policy.
timesofmalta com
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