“… The evidence does not include any case notes, file notes, emails or other contemporaneous records. … Furthermore, the evidential gaps thereby created have not, in many material instances, been rectified through the medium of witness statements. …”
“… The expedited process was a national measure to which two Member States subscribed and which attempted to devise and operate a Dublin Regulation surrogate, giving selective and partial effect to the dominant EU law measure overshadowing and enveloping the whole of this exercise.”
“… The expedited process was, in EU law terms, constitutionally impermissible. It was an act of unlawful Member State disobedience on the part of the United Kingdom.” (para. 108) On that basis, the UT concluded, at para. 114(ii), that AM was in consequence unlawfully deprived of a series of procedural safeguards and protections which were in Dublin III. It also concluded, at para. 114(iii), that AM’s subsequent quest for admission to the UK underArticle 8 of the ECHR could not be defeated on the basis that he did not first attempt to secure the same outcome under the formal processes of the Dublin III regime. As the UT then said: “It follows that [AM] has established the foundations for the grant of a remedy in these proceedings.”
“the decision that the Secretary of State was acting in a procedurally irregular and unfair manner and, hence, unlawfully and the assessment that AMthereby has a basis for the grant of a remedy is made by either or both of two alternative legal routes, namely the procedural dimension ofArticle 8 ECHR and the common law. …”
“It was not disputed by the Secretary of State that the expedited process had to be procedurally fair. Furthermore, many of the procedural deficiencies asserted on behalf of this Applicant (and the others) were not challenged. We add parenthetically that they could not conceivably have been challenged, the conduct of the interviews being a paradigm illustration. The argument advanced was that the procedure was fair in the context to which it belonged. The twin pillars of this argument were inter-related, namely the prevailing humanitarian challenge and the need for quick decision making.”
“The expedited process in the group of five cases to which this challenge belongs was beset with procedural deficiencies and shortcomings and egregious unfairness. … The conduct of the two interviews alone warrants a conclusion of procedural unfairness. … The acid question is whether these procedural irregularities can be excused on the basis of the humanitarian challenge and the need for expedition. … These are the two factors on which the Secretary of State relies. These must be recognised as important considerations and we readily acknowledge the major challenge the two Governments concerned faced. However, we consider that the exercise of balancing them with all the other factors summarised below results in a resounding negative answer to the question posed. Fundamentally, there was far too much at stake for these isolated and vulnerable children to warrant any other answer.”
“Applying the second of the separate ZT (Syria) tests, the conclusion that the process in which the Applicant participated was ‘not capable of responding adequately to [his] needs’ and failed to provide an ‘effective way of proceeding’ is irresistible. The reasons for this fundamentally are that the process devised and operated lacked the structures, depth, penetration and flexibility necessary to ensure the indispensable elements of elementary procedural fairness, adequate enquiry, sufficient evidence gathering, conscientious consideration and proper fact finding. The expedited process involved mechanistic, arbitrary and rushed decision making. Depth and quality were sacrificed on the altar of haste and resource saving. Fundamentally there was far too much at stake for these isolated and vulnerable [children] to justify the corners cut and shortcuts taken. These conclusions apply irrespective of the correctness of our legal characterisation of the process as a Dublin one.”
“To summarise, AM can lay claim to a series of procedural, or due process, protections and safeguards enshrined in three separate legal regimes: EU law, theHuman Rights Act 1998 and the common law. Based on the analysis, findings and conclusions set forth above he has been denied the safeguards identified. The decision making process resulting in the Secretary of State’s original and continued refusal to admit him to the United Kingdom for the purpose of family reunification with AO was, for the reasons explained, irredeemably flawed. It has, without legal justification, breached AM’s procedural rights. This applies irrespective of whether the Dublin Regulation governed the expedited process. AM’s challenge must succeed in consequence.”
“Family link not accepted”
“… is, evidently, a pro-forma or (‘boilerplate’) belonging to a spreadsheet mechanism.”