In this case ZV, a national of Lithuania, alleged that in 2009 she was “trafficked” into the UK by an abusive partner. She said she was beaten, forcibly injected with heroin and forced into prostitution for some eight years. Further, it is alleged that during the period in which she was controlled by her trafficker, she committed a “string of petty shoplifting offences at his direction” for which she received convictions.
On 20 Jun 2017, the claimant was served with a Notice of Liability to Deportation by the SSHD, on the basis that she was a persistent offender and on 23 Jun 2017 she was taken into immigration detention. By these judicial review proceedings, ZV challenged her treatment by the SSHD and in particular the decision to deport her (ground 1) and to declare inadmissible her asylum claim (ground 2). She further alleges that her detention between 24 Jun 2017 and 30 Oct 2017 was unlawful (ground 3), that the SSHD failed to discharge his obligations to her under the EU Trafficking Directive (ground 4) and that he committed breaches of his policy in relation (ground 5) to potential victims of torture.
The Court rejected grounds 1, 2, 4 and 5 but found that ground 3 succeeded, the claimant had been unlawfully detained for 45 days.
Zoe McCallum, Samantha Knights QC and Paul Skinner were involved in this case and were instructed by Ahmed Aydeed and Phong Ma of Duncan Lewis.
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[2018] EWHC 2725 (Admin)https://www.matrixlaw.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/R-ZV-v-SSHD-2018-EWHC-2725-Admin.pdf