Recorder McNeill, concluding she had been unlawfully detained, that the Home Office had taken an “unexplained” amount of time to decide on her case, and hadn’t proved the conditions she was under during the delay were “lawful and proportionate”, ordered the Home Office to pay £98,757.04 in damages and costs of £30,000.
Home Office to pay £100,000 to asylum seeker whose life was ‘grossly restricted’ High court upholds verdict that Nadra Tabasam Almas suffered disproportionate breach of her rights in 2004.
The Home Office must pay £100,000 to an asylum seeker who was unlawfully detained before her ability to work, buy food and socialise was “grossly restricted”, the high court has said.
The Home Office appealed, arguing Almas’s detention had not been unlawful, that the procedural breaches – described as “lack of signatures on key forms” – were minor, that her damages were excessive, because there hadn’t been an “abuse of power”, and that the Recorder had been wrong to conclude there had been a “disproportionate breach” of rights.
In the original case, Recorder McNeill had concluded, when it came to the Home Office’ excuse for detaining Almas, that “it is not enough simply to assert that someone is likely to abscond just because their removal is imminent” and that there had been a “reckless” and unexplained “disregard for her rights”.
