Deportation Appeals Post HA (Iraq) - How Have they Evolved?

Introduction

HA (Iraq) has been heralded as a significant development in the area of deportations due to the refinement of the ‘unduly harsh’ test for those with British children or partners.

Prior to HA (Iraq), the accepted meaning of ‘unduly harsh’ was set out in KO (Nigeria) v SSHD as being:

‘a degree of harshness going beyond what would necessarily be involved for any […] child of a foreign criminal facing deportation.’

This test was often interpreted to mean that a judge should implicitly define an acceptable level of harshness that would necessarily be suffered by any child (or partner) if deportation takes place, and then go on to decide whether the child’s hypothetical suffering would in this case exceed that level.

In his leading judgment in HA (Iraq), Lord Justice Underhill said:

‘it is hard to see how one would define the level of harshness that would ‘necessarily’ be suffered by ‘any’ child (indeed one can imagine unusual cases where the deportation of a parent would not be ‘harsh’ for the child at all, even where there was a genuine and subsisting relationship).’

Delivered by immigration expert Lucy Mair, this webinar will survey the impact which HA (Iraq) has had on the law in respect of deportation and will offer practical guidance on how to handle such cases more effectively.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• The impact which HA (Iraq) has had on the following areas:
• Test of undue harshness
• Test of very compelling circumstances
• Relationship between exceptions 1 and 2 and the test of very compelling circumstances
• Relevance of rehabilitation factors

This webinar was recorded on 23rd September 2021

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