“The court should be very slow to read words into such a detailed, self contained, statutory code.”
“19. Like Blake J in Etame v SSHD and AIT[2008] EWHC 1140 (Admin) I have no difficulty in concluding that the defendant's arguments are to be preferred. Reading s.83 in the way contended for by Mr Drabble would produce an absurd and illogical result. It would be entirely illogical that a person who had made an unfounded asylum claim should have an in country right of appeal arising solely from what Blake J in Etame at [42] called the "irrelevant happenstance" of whether he had had an unrelated grant of leave in the past. I am fortified in that conclusion by a number of factors. First, the only rational basis upon which Mr Drabble has been able to suggest someone in this claimant's position should have the right of appeal is that having been in the United Kingdom in the past should be a cause for him being given special consideration in the appeals process. But I cannot accept that argument. The right of appeal under s.83 is on Refugee Convention grounds only. If the purpose of the provision were to recognise the circumstances of a person who had been in the United Kingdom for some time, it would be absurd to exclude a human rights ground, as s.84(3) does. Secondly, the provisions of s.78 make it clear that launching an appeal under s.82 prevents removal. That benefit does not extend to appeals under s.83. In one sense, that is sufficient to deal with these proceedings anyway, because they appear to be based on the assumption that if the appellant has the right of appeal under s.83 and exercises that right, he cannot be removed while the appeal is pending. But that assumption does not appear to be right. If the appellant appealed under s.83, he could apparently nevertheless be removed from the United Kingdom. But the exclusion of s.83 from the provisions of s.78 is absurd if and only if Mr Drabble is right. If he is not right, a person appealing under s.83 has leave to remain in the United Kingdom and therefore does not need the protection of s.78. 1. The third reason is that s.85(1) has the clear intention of ensuring that all possible current appeals by an individual are dealt with by one appeal process. But s.85(1) again applies only to appeals under s.82. If Mr Drabble is right, the claimant has an appeal under s.83 and also an appeal under s.82, although, in the present case, the latter is exercisable only from abroad. If his s.83 appeal is unsuccessful, he can start new proceedings on an appeal under s.82. There is no suggestion that the statutory scheme envisages such a result. It is only because the claimant's asylum claim has been certified that he has no in-country right of appeal under s.82. If it had not been certified Mr Drabble's argument would entail separate rights under ss. 82 and 83, which would substantially reduce the obviously-intended effects of both ss. 85(1) (because there would still be two appeals) and 84(3) (because there would be no effective limit on the s. 83 grounds if a s.82 appeal was available alongside). This effect is avoided if ss.83 and 83A are understood as giving rights of appeal only in circumstances where no right of appeal exists under s.82. That understanding follows clearly from the wording of s.83A. It applies to s.83 if and only if the period of leave referred to in s.83(1)(b) is a period of leave granted in response to or after the asylum claim. As I have said, there is no right of appeal under s.82 against the grant of leave. The appellate structure makes sense only if the rights of appeal are mutually exclusive. They are mutually exclusive if the appeals under ss.83 and 83A arise only where the appellant has leave. 2. My conclusion is that the right of appeal under s.83 arises only in circumstances where the appellant has made an asylum claim which has been refused, and has been granted periods of leave exceeding one year in aggregate since the decision to refuse asylum. The claimant has no right of appeal under s.83, because his period of leave long pre-dates his asylum claim. His application for Judicial Review must therefore be dismissed.”
“ 3. …The first is that an application for asylum was rejected and, at the same time, either no leave to remain or less than a year’s leave to remain was granted. Secondly, at a later stage further representations were submitted and it was asserted that a fresh asylum claim arose. Thirdly, after the submission of the further representations, the Secretary of State granted indefinite leave to the claimants to remain outside the Rules, but made no decision on the applications asserting the fresh asylum claim and stated that unless told otherwise within 14 days would treat them as withdrawn.”
“69. As to [Omondi] and Etame both involve very different fact situations. In [Omondi] the three years’ leave as a student granted to the claimant had expired in 2005, three years before he made his claim for asylum in 2008 when apprehended as an overstayer. There was thus never a time when the claimant both had leave for over a year and had his asylum application rejected. His was an attempt to get round the certification process in section 96 by a person without leave at the material time. It is not surprising that the result is as it was. 70. As to Etame’s case, a section 83 was not considered in it. It is a case concerned with section 82. It was not concerned with whether there was a right of appeal or not under section 82, but whether the undoubted right of appeal that existed, was to an “in-country” appeal, i.e. the case was concerned with the issue of venue.”
“81. I turn to the position in D and W’s cases. In their cases it was also submitted by Mr Mandalia that there is no rational basis upon which it could be said that a person should be able to exercise a further right of appeal under section 83 against the refusal of a previous claim against which the claimant has exercised a right to appeal and received its determination. However, it is significant that whereas there is provision to preclude appeals under section 82 which are purely repetitious or which advance grounds that should have been raised in the past in section 96 of the 2002 Act, there is no similar provision in respect of appeals under section 83. 82. There is a particular need to prevent repetitious appeals under section 82 because they have the potential to frustrate removal of an individual while he pursues multiple appeals which are unlikely to be meritorious. I accept Mr McKenzie’s submission that the same concerns do not apply to section 83 appeals where the appellant is by definition not liable to be removed from the United Kingdom and has no interest in spinning out the process.”
“38. There is undoubtedly a problem of spurious and/or repetitious claims for asylum in the context of appeals under section 82. Sections 94 and 96 enable the Secretary of State to respond to that problem and they do not, as Mr. Payne pointed out, apply to appeals under section 83. Thus he submitted that the Secretary of State will not be able to prevent manifestly unfounded and/or repetitious appeals under section 83. Again, the potential problem is overstated. Appellants under section 82 are, in practice, seeking to prevent their removal from the UK (see the list of immigration decisions in subsection 82(2)). It is understandable, if regrettable, that such Appellants will make every endeavour, however hopeless, to avoid or postpone their removal. By contrast, those entitled to appeal under section 83 will, by definition, have been given leave to remain in the UK for a least a year, and will know that if that leave is not extended they will be entitled to an appeal under section 82. While there are advantages in obtaining refugee status in terms of access to employment, housing and welfare benefits, the ability to travel and to bring family members to the UK (see paras. 9 and 10 of Saad), a wish to obtain such advantages under section 83 should not be equated with a determination to remain in the UK at all costs under section 82: see paragraph 82 of the judgement of Beatson J.”
“a person whose claim for asylum has been rejected in the context of a s82 immigration decision against which he has unsuccessfully appealed will be told if he seeks legal advice and/or public funding that he will fair no better in a subsequent appeal under s 83 unless he can persuade the Tribunal that there is some good reason to depart from the earlier decision”
“Those entitled to appeal under s83 will, by definition, have been given leave to remain in the UK for at least a year, and will know that if that leave is not extended they will be entitled to an appeal under s 82”