“No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
“…. For the circumstances to be … ‘very exceptional’ it would need to be shown that the applicant’s medical condition had reached such a critical stage that there were compelling humanitarian grounds for not removing him to a place which lacked the medical and social services which he would need to prevent acute suffering while he is dying…”
“The court considers that the ‘other very exceptional cases’ within the meaning of the judgment in [N]... which may raise an issue under article 3 should be understood to refer to situations involving the removal of a seriously ill person in which substantial grounds have been shown for believing that he or she, although not at imminent risk of dying, would face a real risk, on account of the absence of appropriate treatment in the receiving country or the lack of access to such treatment, of being exposed to a serious, rapid and irreversible decline in his or her state of health resulting in intense suffering or to a significant reduction in life expectancy…”
“This means that where the applicant faces a real risk of experiencing intense suffering (i.e. to the article 3 standard) in the receiving state because of their illness and the non-availability there of treatment which is available to them in the removing state or faces a real risk of death within a short time in the receiving state for the same reason. In other words, the boundary of article 3 protection has been shifted from being defined by imminence of death in the removing state (even with the treatment available there) to being defined by the imminence (i.e. likely ‘rapid’ experience) of intense suffering or death in the receiving state, which may only occur because of the non-availability in that state of the treatment which had previously been available in the removing state.”
“It is common ground that where a foreign national seeks to rely upon article 3 as an answer to an attempt by a state to remove him to another country, the overall legal burden is on him to show that article 3 would be infringed in his case by showing that that there are substantial grounds for believing that he would face a real risk of being subject to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment in that other country: see, e.g., Soering v UnitedKingdom(1989) 11 EHRR 439 at [91], which is reflected in the formulations in Paposhvili at [173] and [183]…. In Paposhvili, at [186]-[187]…, the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR has given guidance how he may achieve that, by raising a prima facie case of infringement of article 3 which then casts an evidential burden onto the defending state which is seeking to expel him.”
“I think it is clear that two essential points are being made. First, the absence of inadequacy of medical treatment, even life-preserving treatment, in the country of return, cannot be relied on at all as a factor engaging article 8: if that is all there is, the claim must fail. Secondly, where article 8 is engaged by other factors, the fact that the claimant is receiving medical treatment in this country which may not be available in the country of return may be a factor in the proportionality exercise; but that factor cannot be treated as by itself giving rise to a breach since that would contravene the ‘no obligation to treat’ principle.”
“… [I]t will often be sensible first to see whether his case involves circumstances of the kind described in Exceptions 1 and 2, both because the circumstances so described set out particularly significant factors bearing upon respect for private life (Exception 1) and respect for family life (Exception 2) and because that may provide a helpful basis on which an assessment can be made whether there are ‘very compelling circumstances, over and above those described in Exceptions 1 and 2’ as is required under section 117C(6). It will then be necessary to look to see whether any of the factors falling within the Exceptions 1 and 2 are of such force, whether by themselves or taken in conjunction with any other relevant factors not covered by the circumstances described in Exceptions 1 and 2, as to satisfy the test in section 117C(6).”
“In my judgment, the determination of the [FtT] did not identify, as it should have done, what were the features of the [Respondent’s] case that amounted to compelling reasons, or were exceptional circumstances, justifying the success of his appeal. Indeed, I would go further and state that I have been unable to identify in the determination findings of fact that could properly be categorised as exceptional, or amounting to compelling reasons for him to be allowed to remain in this country, given the seriousness of his repeated criminal conduct. I fully recognise that if the judge’s factual findings are well founded, there will be a real and damaging impact on his partner and the children; but that is a common consequence of the deportation of a person who has children in this country. Deportation will normally be appropriate in cases such as the present, even though the children will be affected and the interests of the children are a primary consideration. In some cases the family may be able to join the deportee in the country of his nationality, but that was not explored in this case, and I assume was not a real possibility.”
“… Even in the United Kingdom the [Respondent] is suffering two or three serious and extremely painful life-threatening crises a year requiring hospital admission, and perhaps two more a year which do not require admission to hospital, whilst being subject to constant monitoring and taking prophylactic antibiotics, which the expert medical evidence before me shows would probably not be available to him. Without these drugs he would likely suffer many more infections, and in addition he [would be] likely to suffer from malaria (a condition he has already suffered according to is medical notes) if returned to Nigeria, and would not be likely to find the medical facilities to both provide the heavy-duty morphine pain relief he needs or further antibiotics to treat the infections he has contracted. As a result I can properly conclude that the [Respondent] would face an imminence of intense suffering in the receiving state which would occur due to the lack of treatment which is available in the United Kingdom but is not available in Nigeria.”
“… I find nothing except the medical issues outlined above in the discussion of article 3… can raise, in combination with other factors, a different and sufficient case for the [Respondent’s] deportation to also be disproportionate interference with his article 8 rights.” interference with his article 8 rights.”