Frances Swaine and
Merry Varney are instructed by a family who sought a safe haven in the UK, yet instead were subjected to further horrific treatment from the authorities they believed would keep them safe. As a result of their treatment, we are bringing claims for false imprisonment, assault, breach of human rights, and negligence against the
Home Office and the private security companies contracted to deport the family.
The K family
Mrs K and her five children (now aged between 18 years old and three years old), one of whom has always been a British citizen, were deported from the UK in May 2006 following unsuccessful applications by the rest of the family to remain in the UK. Their actual removal followed two previous removal attempts and five days in an immigration detention centre.
During the removal attempts, Mrs K and her children suffered physical and psychological abuse and despite the authorities clear awareness that Mrs K and some of her children suffered serious mental health problems, they were detained without appropriate support and without due process.
It is our claim that the Home Office and the private security companies contracted to remove the family from the UK subjected them to a level of force that was wholly unreasonable. The family claim that they were subjected to physical assaults, degrading treatment, verbal abuse and false imprisonment. We further claim that the deportation of the British child was wholly unlawful.
We claim that as a result of the painful and unlawful process Mrs K and her five children all suffered physical and psychological injuries. Sadly, after their removal, Mrs K was again subjected to further torture and she was forced again to flee her home country, leaving behind her children. Thankfully after returning to the UK a second time she has now been granted leave to remain following her second application for asylum and her children have now been reunited with her as they have all been given leave to remain. Mrs K and her children have received invaluable support from the charity,
Women Against Rape.
Despite whatever occurred in their home country they have never forgotten the treatment they received at the hands of the Home Office nor those delegated to by the Home Office to remove them from the country.
Outsourcing abuse
On 14 July 2008 Birnberg Peirce & Partners, Medical Justice and NCADC published a report on the use and misuse of state-sanctioned force during the detention and removal of failed asylum seekers.
The report makes for very alarming reading and the dossier contains repeated stories very similar to that of our clients, the K family, about ill-treatment and assault during detention and removals. The report evidences the horrific treatment failed asylum seekers are often subjected to, the severe difficulties that are faced by those who try to seek redress for their treatment and the uncooperative attitude of the authorities involved. A full copy of the report can be found
here.
Leigh Day & Co support the invitation in the report to the Home Office and other entities involved to take action to prevent this abuse continuing.
If you believe you have been mistreated, are or were wrongly detained during the course of deportation or during the asylum process or would simply like further information, please do contact
Frances Swaine on 0207 650 1249.
Information was correct at time of publishing. See terms and conditions for further details.