The High Court adjourned part of Y.Y.’s judicial review challenge to a deportation-related decision, directing the Minister for Justice and Equality to reconsider the decision after receiving further submissions about secret or incommunicado detention in Algeria.
In a judgment delivered on 25 February 2019, Mr Justice Richard Humphreys considered the Minister’s decision under section 3(11) of the Immigration Act 1999, dated 22 November 2018, refusing to revoke a deportation order. The issue before the court was the Minister’s treatment of the risk of secret or incommunicado detention.
The applicant sought to have the proceedings adjourned so he could make further representations, after which the Minister could affirm or reverse the decision. The Minister argued that there had been no error and sought dismissal of the amended proceedings. The Minister’s position was that the UN Human Rights Committee’s concluding observations on Algeria’s fourth periodic report, issued on 17 August 2018, were not themselves a contemporaneous report of secret detention centres. The court noted that neither side had put the underlying background documents before it.
Justice Humphreys said that, given the Minister’s statement that there were no post-2016 reports of secret or incommunicado detention, demonstrating even a “report of a report” after 2016 showed an error that the State was required to address. The judgment referred to the applicant having already met the substantial-grounds threshold concerning a real risk of treatment contrary to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The court ordered the challenge to the 22 November decision adjourned while the Minister considers further submissions confined to secret or incommunicado detention, and requires the Minister to affirm or reverse that decision. The applicant was given seven days from the oral pronouncement of the order to make submissions, potentially including new material on that issue. The respondent must then provide a schedule of intended material within seven days, subject to exclusions for material previously communicated and the UN committee’s 17 August observations. The applicant may respond within seven days if additional material is scheduled. The Minister then has two weeks to decide, with the period beginning after any further observations or notice that no further material will be relied on.
The matter was listed for mention on 25 March 2019. The separate challenge to the deportation order also remains adjourned pending the outcome of this section 3(11) process. The judgment did not finally determine that challenge or decide whether the Minister should affirm or reverse the November decision.