The Background
I had been an immigration lawyer in the same town for over 20 years.
Some of the local immigration officers had served that long or longer. They had not sought promotion because promotion was always to Heathrow, Gatwick or Dover and they appreciated the quality of life in Yorkshire.
Over this length of time we had built relationships. Sometimes Immigration Officers had sent me clients where they could not get involved but they suspected I could get to the truth and that telling the truth might have a positive outcome for the client.
The local Immigration Service knew that although I was willing to go to the press, I rarely did.
I was not about making the Immigration Officers look stupid and heartless, because they were not. They had a difficult job to do, and most of them tried to do it with humanity.
There were literally dozens of times the Immigration Officers had made mistakes and I had quietly set them straight.
Usually the mistakes were because the Home Office in Croydon had authorised arrests in error. The filing at the Home Office was up to six months behind, so mistakes were inevitable. A later Home Secretary said the immigration side of the Home Office was “not fit for purpose”, and he was absolutely right.
The mistakes were at Croydon and the Immigration Officers had to act on instructions until I explained why the instructions were incorrect.
The Phone Call
Normally the Immigration Service telephoned me after they had detained someone, but this time a seasoned senior immigration officer telephoned me to say that he was going to detain someone. This chap was supposed to sign on at the Immigration Service every week, but he had not been to sign on for more than two months. The Immigration Officer knew my clients were pretty good about signing on. Was there any reason I knew of why he was not signing on?
“Well,” I said, “I suppose the most obvious reason is because he has won his appeal. We had a hearing about eight weeks ago. He has won. The Home Office may appeal but I have had no notice of appeal.”
“Well my boss wants to make an example of him because he is not signing on.”
“I see. How many Immigration Officers are you going to send?”
“We usually send two. Why?”
“Have you read his file?”
“No. We have not got it.”
“Well, part of his political asylum case is that he qualified to fight in the Olympics for his country, but they would not let him onto the team because of his ethnicity. I am not sure that two Immigration Officers will be enough to arrest a martial arts expert if he does not want to be arrested.”
“Thanks for that.”
“How long are you intending to detain him?”
“I don’t know. Presumably until we obtain travel documents from his country. Why?”
“Well, his country does not recognise him as a citizen because he was born outside the country, and the country where he was born expelled his family when he was a child. In practice he is stateless, and no-one will take him. You may be holding him a long time.”
“Oh and I should mention he has mental health issues and physical health issues. He carries round a black rubbish sack full of medication. I hope you can have a doctor to him quickly because he may black out if he doesn’t fight you.”
“Have a word with your boss. If you detain someone who has won his case, and he has a mental health relapse because of the arrest, do you think there might be bad publicity and a claim against the Home Office?”
“And that is aside from the danger that he might hurt or kill one of your officers or be badly hurt himself? And if he is not returnable, what is the point?
“And as he has won then you will look bad arresting him. It will make you look like bad losers.
“The first case was abandoned because of a Home Office error and the next two times he won. It will look like spite.
“I know it isn’t spite, but it would be hard to think of any other explanation. The Press would have a field day.”
My Advice
I suggested he suggest to his boss that if the Home Office speeded up the paperwork to grant the man the political asylum he had won that would be a better use of immigration officer time.
I heard no more. Well done to the Immigration Officer to have the wit to check with me first.
A human tragedy or possibly several human tragedies averted.
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