Greg Ó Ceallaigh KC and Emma Fitzsimons of Garden Court Chambers represented Judge X, instructed by Bahar Ata and Oskar Butcher of Duncan Lewis Solicitors.
The below article has been reproduced from a Duncan Lewis release.
An Afghan Judge, anonymised as ‘X’ for the purposes of litigation, has been granted in-principle Leave Outside the Immigration Rules (‘LOTR’) following a claim for judicial review brought by the legal team.
The in-principle grant of LOTR has been made in the same terms as leave granted under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (‘ARAP’), for which Judge X first applied in October 2021, following the Taliban overthrow of the National Government of Afghanistan in August of that year.
The decision – which applies to Judge X, his wife, and their two young children – means that the family will be allowed to enter and remain in the United Kingdom with settled status. The grant is subject only to their successful completion of standard UK visa requirements, and will provide them with the same protections and rights as those eligible under ARAP.
Background
Following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, Judge X and his family were forced into hiding due to the severe threat to his life posed by the Taliban regime. Taliban members actively pursued for Judge X for years, in light of the role that he played as a Judge in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, prior to the Taliban overthrow of the National Government. In total, X and his family spent over three years in hiding.
The legal team issued a claim for judicial review against the Secretary of State for Defence and the Secretary of States for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, challenging their refusal of Judge X’s ARAP application. The challenge was made on the grounds that the refusal (and subsequent review) was unreasonable, in breach of government policy, and in breach of the Common Law duty of fairness.
This decision follows substantial efforts by the legal team, including a previous judicial review claim against the unlawful delay in determining his ARAP application. Judge X and his family will now travel to a regional Visa Application Centre to complete UK visa requirement checks, upon completion of which they will be relocated to the UK.
