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Unlawful for Home Office to impose additional bail condition reducing migrant’s scope of liberty

Published:

Re: R (on the Application Of BVN) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWHC 1159 (Admin)

This judicial review claim concerned the treatment of a migrant who was identified as a potential victim of human trafficking, and the lawfulness of statutory guidance issued by the Secretary of State for the Home Department under section 49 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

The claim raised two distinct questions or topics:

  • Was the Defendant’s statutory guidance unlawful because it permits a potential victim of trafficking to withdraw from the National Referral Mechanism (“NRM”) without imposing a requirement of informed consent (and/or was it therefore unlawful for the Defendant to take steps to remove the Claimant from the UK following such a withdrawal)?
  • If the High Court granted unconditional bail to a person in immigration detention, is it lawful for the Secretary of State then to impose a condition on the person’s release requiring them to report periodically to a specified location?

The court held the imposition of a reporting condition to be inconsistent with High Court’s order, and that it was therefore unlawful for the defendant to supplement this order by imposing a bail condition which encroached on the liberty granted by the Deputy Judge.

Chris Buttler represented the claimant in this case.