Compensation for Tier 1 professionals?

Court of Appeal rules Home Office breached human rights in important Balajigari case. In a much anticipated judgement, the Court of Appeal has decided that the Home Office policy to reject Tier 1 immigration applications on the basis of essentially unfounded concerns is unlawful. Read judgement here. The Vice-President of the Court of Appeal, Lord Justice Underhill, criticised the UK government’s practice of routinely refusing these applications “without giving applicants an opportunity to proffer an innocent explanation”. Almost two thousand professionals and entrepreneurs, many from India and Pakistan, were caught up in what has been dubbed the new “Windrush” scandal. Forced to leave the UK, careers were destroyed, families uprooted and reputations damaged.Shockingly, this isn’t the first time the Home Office has acted in this way. Indeed, in December 2017, the same court – and in fact the same judge – declared unlawful the blanket practice of refusing and removing applicants suspected of deception when sitting English language tests, again without giving individuals a chance to establish their innocence. As with Windrush, people are justifiably angry and looking to hold the Home Office to account. Many of those affected in the Windrush cases have sought compensation for financial loss and mental distress through British courts, and the government has now established a compensation scheme in recognition of harm done. The question to the Home Office now must be: will you do the right thing for victims of this new scandal? We have a long and proud history of successfully pursuing the UK government for compensation and are representing a number of original Windrush cases. If you were a professional who was unfairly refused by the Home Office and are looking for redress, our dedicated partners Anita Vasisht and James Elliott would like to hear from you.

Anita Vasisht:  a.vasisht@wilsonllp.co.uk James Elliott:  j.elliott@wilsonllp.co.uk