Raza Halim in CoA test case on scope of Home Secretary’s Authority to Carry scheme

Raza Halim acted in the Court of Appeal for his client, Mr Tasib, in early July this year in a test case that will determine the lawful scope and operation of the Home Secretary’s Authority to Carry scheme.

The scheme was brought into force in 2023 and requires airlines and other transport carriers to obtain government permission before bringing certain individuals into or out of the country.

This case is an appeal against the High Court ruling by Mrs Justice Farbey earlier this year.

Mr Tasib arrived in the UK in 1998 aged 5 years old. He held indefinite leave to remain, was subject to deportation proceedings, and was barred from returning to the UK after taking his wife to visit his father-in-law on his deathbed in Pakistan.

When he attempted to return home to Peterborough from Pakistan, the Home Secretary refused the airline the authority to carry him back to the UK.

A decision to exclude Mr Tasib from the UK permanently followed shortly afterwards.

Those decisions have prevented Mr Tasib from accessing his right to challenge his deportation whilst in the UK and caused a serious rupture to his family life, including with his sister for whom he is a full-time carer and his duties as a father to a newborn baby.

The case concerns several novel points of law, including:

• Whether the decision to refuse the airline authority to carry Mr Tasib back to the UK and exclude him from the UK was ultra vires and/or disproportionate interference with his right to respect for private and family life, and
• The constitutional question as to whether the Home Secretary has the power to make an exclusion direction against a Commonwealth citizen.

Judgment has been reserved and expedited owing to the importance of the issues and because Mr Tasib remains stranded in straitened circumstances in a country that is alien to him.

To instruct or contact Raza Halim, please email: contactmyclerks@gclaw.co.uk