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deporting EEA nationals
If my client loses her right to reside appeal tomorrow afternoon, she wants to know if/when she will be deported. I have been concentrating on right to reside law, had only thought about her being even more destitute, not deported.
I know that some local authorities offer certain EEA nationals travel back to their EEA countries when they are destitute. It happened with one of my clients in Birmingham who failed the HRT and was destitute.
Not sure what happens in the rest of the country?
Yep, I know you can request help to return if destitute - she doesn’t want that, she is worried about being made to leave.
being deported is a home office remit
if the right to reside appeal is a DWP benefits one, it’s not within their remit to decide a deportation, only immigration can do that
if it’s a real concern, she needs immigration advice…
What we would like to know is - is it a real concern?
I’ve never heard of a person who failed right to reside test for benefit purposes being asked to leave by Home Office for that reason alone so I’d say it isn’t a real concern. Anyone else got other views?
What we would like to know is - is it a real concern?
Practically speaking, it shouldn’t be an issue, unless they commit some kind of crime.
Challenge to Operation Nexus deportation scheme continues – if it gets the funding
Of course advising this lady specifically on whether she is liable to deportation and whether she is likely to be deported would be a criminal offence unless you are OISC registered…
In general terms however, being found not to have a right to reside for benefits purposes does not automatically result in deportation. The Home Office has its own procedures to follow (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/668093/GI-EEA-admin-removal-v4.0EXT.pdf) which usually include letters, interviews and assessment of proportionality. I think it is fair to say that if the Home Office was considering deporting you, you would know about it.
Certainly the only cases I have seen where deportation is even on the table have involved claimants with fairly substantial criminal records.
The circumstances in which a member state can restrict the residence rights of an EU citizen are to do with public policy, security and health and cannot be purely economic. So an EU citizen cannot lawfully be deported for being poor or even destitute. To quote the residence directive, “The personal conduct of the individual concerned must represent a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat affecting one of the fundamental interests of society.”
Having said that, the Home Office and UKBF seems to be full of people who either don’t know, or don’t care about what is lawful. We had a talk from UKBF; encouraging us to dob people in if we didn’t think they had a right of residence. One of the officers displayed his general ignorance of the law, and then said, “Unfortunately, we can’t touch them when they’ve been here five years.”
So your client should probably be ready to contact an immigration lawyer, just in case.
If anyone from UKBF told me to report someone to them for failing the RTR test I would impolitely tell him what he could go and do with himself.
As to the question. Agree with the others. No real concerns here.
Thanks all - but she now has a right to reside, just got back from the successful hearing
Brilliant:)
There is of course a distinction between a “Removal” and a “Deportation”...........
Just saying.