R (Yassine and Others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department

JurisdictionEngland & Wales
Judgment Date06 March 1990
Date06 March 1990
CourtQueen's Bench Division

Queen's Bench Division

Before Mr Justice Schiemann

Regina
and
Secretary of State for the Home Department, Ex parte Yassine and Others

Immigration - refugee - political asylum

Home Secretary acted unlawfully in political asylum case

The Home Secretary acted unlawfully in directing the removal to a third country of a person, with a ticket to that country but seeking political asylum in the United Kingdom, where he had no cause to believe that the refugee would be admitted to that country.

Mr Justice Schiemann so held in the Queen's Bench Division when allowing applications for judicial review by six applicants against the decisions of the Home Secretary on January 30, 1990 not to consider their applications for political asylum and to direct their removal from the United Kingdom to Brazil.

Paragraph 8 of Schedule 2 to the Immigration Act 1971 provides: "(1) Where a person arriving in the United Kingdom is refused leave to enter, an immigration officer may … (c) give … directions … requiring … his removal from the United Kingdom … to a country or territory so specified, being … (iv) a country or territory to which there is reason to believe that he will be admitted."

Article 31 of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (1951) (Cmd 9171) provides: "(1) The contracting states shall not impose penalties, on account of their illegal entry or presence, on refugees who, coming directly from a territory where their life or freedom was threatened in the sense of article 1, enter or are present in that territory without authorization, provided they present themselves without delay to the authorities and show good cause for their illegal entry or presence."

Mr Nicholas Blake for the applicants; Mr Guy Sankey for the Home Secretary.

MR JUSTICE SCHIEMANN said that each of the applicants had obtained from the Brazilian Embassy in Beirut a tourist visa to enter Brazil and held return airline tickets there from Lebanon.

They arrived at Gatwick Airport via Cyprus. They had not applied for, still less obtained, United Kingdom visas. Nevertheless, they immediately claimed political asylum.

The Home Secretary decided not to consider their applications for asylum. That decision was based on the fact that the applicants had visas for admission to Brazil and held tickets for travel to that country, had no connection with the United Kingdom and that it was reasonable to expect them to apply for asylum in Brazil.

The applicants contended that they obtained the...

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9 cases
  • R v Secretary of state for the home department ex parte Erkan Akyol Huseyin Sahim and Hasan Polat
    • United Kingdom
    • Queen's Bench Division
    • 7 August 1990
    ...Jay for the respondent Case referred to in the judgment: R v Secretary of State for the Home Department ex parte Khalil Yassine and ors [1990] Imm AR 354. Political asylum refusal of Secretary of State to consider applications on their merits applicants required to make applications for asy......
  • R (SM) v Secretary of State for the Home Department
    • United Kingdom
    • Queen's Bench Division (Administrative Court)
    • 23 February 2011
    ...the test in paragraph 1 of Schedule 3 to the 1971 Act as interpreted in Yassine v Secretary of State for the Home Department [1990] Imm AR 354 was clearly satisfied. The question is whether, in the light of the refusal of the Bosnian authorities to issue him with travel documents since the ......
  • AL & Others (Malaysia BOCs)
    • United Kingdom
    • Asylum and Immigration Tribunal
    • 29 April 2008
    ...submissions. It is for the Appellants to establish their case. 53 Mr Gill's submissions rely on R v SSHD ex parte Yassine and others [1990] Imm AR 354. That was a case in which Lebanese nationals had visitors' visas for Brazil. They had obtained those visas in Beirut, not because they inten......
  • Upper Tribunal (Immigration and asylum chamber), 2008-07-03, [2009] UKAIT 26 (AL and Others (Malaysia BOCs))
    • United Kingdom
    • Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber)
    • 3 July 2008
    ...submissions. It is for the Appellants to establish their case. 53. Mr Gill’s submissions rely on R v SSHD ex parte Yassine and others [1990] Imm AR 354. That was a case in which Lebanese nationals had visitors’ visas for Brazil. They had obtained those visas in Beirut, not because they inte......
  • Request a trial to view additional results
1 books & journal articles
  • The Asylum and Immigration Act 1996: Erosion of the Right to Seek Asylum
    • United Kingdom
    • Wiley The Modern Law Review No. 61-2, March 1998
    • 1 March 1998
    ...andInternational Law’ (1989) 1 International Journal of Refugee Law 48.10 RvSecretary of State for the Home Department, ex p Yassine [1990] Imm AR 354, 359–360.11 Immigration Act 1971, Sched 2 para 16.The Modern Law Review [Vol. 61208 ßThe Modern Law Review Limited available were unable to ......

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