A secret Home Office policy that would have prevented people with the right to live in the UK at airports and ports has been found unlawful by the high court.
The policy applied to unpaid NHS debts and was only discovered through evidence collected from charities and lawyers fighting the cases of two mothers who were repeatedly detained.
The women were held at the ports when trying to re-enter the UK after trips abroad to visit family, because they had outstanding debts to the NHS for maternity care – debts known -an at the Home Office when they were granted leave to remain in the UK.
While the women were only detained with their children for a short time they did not know when they would be released.
They were detained and investigated by Border Force officers because the Home Office system had flagged them as having unpaid NHS debts.
In a judgment handed down today Mr Justice Chamberlain found that the two women and their young children had been falsely imprisoned by the home secretary without justification. He also found that Suella Braverman breached her duty to consider the equality impact of the policy on women, who are known to be disproportionately affected by NHS billing.
The Home Office was asked during the case to confirm the policy existed and publish it, but refused to do so. It has now finally disclosed the policy and said it has been rewritten.
The women bringing the case are from Mali and Albania. The woman from Mali is a survivor of FGM and is in debt to the NHS due to multiple miscarriages and stillbirths. Her debt was challenged due to her being a victim of FGM. Albanian woman pays off her NHS debt.
Ruling in the women’s favor the judge found the Home Office’s unpublished policy of stopping people at airports and ports was unlawful.
In his judgment he said: “If that policy is not published, there is a danger that a practice will develop … which can only be seen by combining the accounts given by many individuals to their respective lawyers. The result may be that many people are unlawfully detained before the practice is recognized and the illegality exposed.
“At that time, however, it is likely that it was applied to many people. It would have been better for all concerned if the policy had been published and its illegality recognized earlier.
Both women accepted the verdict. The Albanian woman, who has been detained at least eight times, said: “I have been detained with my children every time we go home to see my family for the last eight years. This made us afraid to approach immigration control because we didn’t know how long they would hold us or even if they would let us in.
“I am really relieved that the judge agreed with us that the officers cannot use the power of detention in this way. I welcome the Home Office’s decision to change its policy for people like me who have been living in the UK legally for many years and just want to get home.
Janet Farrell, of Bhatt Murphy Solicitors, who represented the two women, said: “Our clients’ imprisonment is humiliating and distressing. This judgment shows how important it is that policies regarding the use of repressive powers such as detention are published so that victims can hold the government accountable in court in a meaningful way.
A government spokesman said: “The Home Office is carefully considering the implications of the judgment. Revised guidance will be updated and published shortly.”
