This application for judicial review centred on whether the Secretary of State for the Home Department breached his legal duties to provide support and assistance for the claimant as a minor victim of trafficking.
The Court dismissed the claim that the defendant had failed to provide adequate support and assistance to the claimant in immigration detention. The Judge concluded that judicial review proceedings were not the appropriate means to assess whether the claimant and doctors had linguistic misunderstandings, or to assess whether the doctor’s examinations were beyond the range of what could be expected from a clinician in his position. Finally the judge concluded that a court is still to quantify the loss to which the claimant will be entitled for his unlawful detention and therefore the Court had to avoid encroaching on the territory of that hearing. As such the ground was not held to have been made out.
The Court also refused permission on the systemic challenge. Although the defendant had made numerous errors in handling the claimant’s case, the wider issues were the subject of reports with a wider remit. The Court did not consider that a declaration of specific breaches would establish any purpose, nor that the wider declaration was appropriate.
Samantha Knights QC was involved in this case.