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At the Immigration and Asylum Chamber: the appeal over the deportation of the boat race protester
Having served seven weeks and paid the crown’s costs, Oldfield received another blow: earlier this year the Home Office rejected his spousal visa application. An Australian citizen, he has lived in the UK since 2001, as a ‘highly skilled migrant’; he had no previous convictions and his sentence didn’t lead to automatic deportation; the refusal came days before his British wife gave birth to their first child. The Home Office said that Oldfield’s presence in the country was ‘not conducive to the public good’.
...
Article 8 of the convention, which guarantees respect for private and family life, gave Oldfield and his supporters hope that his appeal against the decision might be successful. They argued that deporting him would infringe the rights of his wife and their five-month-old daughter. The appeal was heard at the Immigration and Asylum Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal on Monday. Several dozen people gathered outside the building in north London, some brandishing banners, and cheered Oldfield when he arrived with his family. The allocated courtroom turned out to be surprisingly small. ‘Seven or eight of you may be able to get in,’ the clerk said. ‘If you are going to wait here keep clear of the fire doors.’
While Oldfield was being briefed by his lawyers, Naik recalled the visa saga that had been going on for months: the Home Office had repeatedly failed to submit necessary documents. One of the supporters talked about East London’s radical movements. Another told a story about the wetsuit Oldfield wore when he jumped into the Thames, now in the Bishopsgate Institute archives. There were other people waiting there too. A Nigerian couple weren’t sure if the minimum income threshold should apply to them: they’d submitted their application before the new guidelines came into effect but some of the paperwork had been lost. A wire journalist with a place in the courtroom kept us up to date with the proceedings.
...
Summing up, the judge said: ‘It would be my intention to allow your appeal.’ The decision could take up to ten days to become official, but the lawyers said indications of this kind were very rare and they had reason to believe it was a win. Oldfield came out looking drained, apologising for having to ‘zip out of here’ to take his family home. Before leaving, he said that the media should focus not on him, but on things happening ‘every single day in this building’.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2013/12/11/anna-aslanyan/at-the-immigration-and-asylum-chamber/#sthash.yH4Apbci.dpuf
...
Article 8 of the convention, which guarantees respect for private and family life, gave Oldfield and his supporters hope that his appeal against the decision might be successful. They argued that deporting him would infringe the rights of his wife and their five-month-old daughter. The appeal was heard at the Immigration and Asylum Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal on Monday. Several dozen people gathered outside the building in north London, some brandishing banners, and cheered Oldfield when he arrived with his family. The allocated courtroom turned out to be surprisingly small. ‘Seven or eight of you may be able to get in,’ the clerk said. ‘If you are going to wait here keep clear of the fire doors.’
While Oldfield was being briefed by his lawyers, Naik recalled the visa saga that had been going on for months: the Home Office had repeatedly failed to submit necessary documents. One of the supporters talked about East London’s radical movements. Another told a story about the wetsuit Oldfield wore when he jumped into the Thames, now in the Bishopsgate Institute archives. There were other people waiting there too. A Nigerian couple weren’t sure if the minimum income threshold should apply to them: they’d submitted their application before the new guidelines came into effect but some of the paperwork had been lost. A wire journalist with a place in the courtroom kept us up to date with the proceedings.
...
Summing up, the judge said: ‘It would be my intention to allow your appeal.’ The decision could take up to ten days to become official, but the lawyers said indications of this kind were very rare and they had reason to believe it was a win. Oldfield came out looking drained, apologising for having to ‘zip out of here’ to take his family home. Before leaving, he said that the media should focus not on him, but on things happening ‘every single day in this building’.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2013/12/11/anna-aslanyan/at-the-immigration-and-asylum-chamber/#sthash.yH4Apbci.dpuf
Deportation does seem a massive over-reaction, especially considering he's married to a Briton, with a child. But as the article says, the system seems to be randomly punitive.
