Robert Jenrick has blasted the latest immigration ruling (Image: PA)
Allowing an asylum seeker to stay in the UK after they joined a terror group is a “sick joke”, Robert Jenrick has declared.
A Nigerian woman, 49, failed eight times to secure asylum in Britain.
But she was allowed to stay after joining the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group “in order to create a claim for asylum”.
Upper tribunal judge Gemma Loughran ruled that the asylum seeker had a “well-founded fear of persecution” under human rights laws due to her “imputed” political opinion.
Kemi Badenoch urged Britain to put its own interests first (Image: PA)
Keir Starmer insisted the Home Office is trying to close loopholes (Image: PA)
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick declared: “This decision is a sick joke on the British public.
“It’s a clear example of immigration judges abusing their powers. It must end.”
The Nigerian migrant, who was granted anonymity, appealed eight times after the Home Office rejected her initial application to remain in the UK.
She filed claims under Article 8 of the ECHR, which guarantees a right to a family life, and said she was a victim of trafficking.
All of the claims were rejected over a 10-year period.
But in her ninth appeal, the asylum seeker said she had joined IPOB in 2017 and attended its rallies, protests and campaigns.
This would put her at risk of persecution, the woman said.
IPOB has been banned as a terrorist organisation by Nigeria but is not proscribed in the UK.
She said protesters at the Nigerian high commission were photographed and potentially watched on CCTV.
The appellant was backed by IPOB’s UK-based medical director, who detailed her roles within the group, although these were not publicly disclosed to avoid revealing her identity.
The Nigerian woman told the court she feared being arrested at the airport and “disappeared” if she returned to Nigeria as its government had powers under terror laws to imprison IPOB members.
In 2021, in a government crackdown on the armed wing of the IPOB, 115 people were killed, with allegations of suspects being tortured.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp added: “This shows judges are inventing new and comically ludicrous interpretations of vague European Convention on Human Rights’ (ECHR) articles in order to allow foreign criminals and illegal immigrants to stay in the country,” he said.
“This is an abuse of the power judges have been given.
“It is clear to me that a radical overhaul of human rights law is needed in order to end this abuse by the judiciary – who have taken for themselves what amounts to legislative powers.”
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch used Prime Minister’s Questions to launch a blistering attack on a “crazy” court ruling that a family of Gaza refugees must be allowed into the UK despite applying through a scheme for Ukrainians.
Her remarks have intensified demands for her to commit to pulling the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights if the return to power.
The family-of-six – comprising a mother and father and their four children who were aged 18, 17, eight and seven in September – were displaced when their home in the Gaza Strip was destroyed by an air strike in the -Hamas war.
They applied for entry to the UK using the Family Scheme to join the father’s brother, who has lived in the UK since 2007 and is a British citizen, but this was refused in May last year after the Home Office concluded the requirements of the scheme had not been met.
The family, who have been granted anonymity, had an appeal against the decision dismissed by a first-tier immigration tribunal judge in September.
A further appeal has been allowed by upper tribunal judges on the grounds of Article 8 of the ECHR after a hearing in January.
Mr Jenrick, the Shadow Justice Secretary, told the Daily Express: “This decision potentially allows anyone in any conflict zone anywhere in the world to join any family member already in the UK.
“It effectively removes the right of the British Government to have an immigration policy.
“It’s an outrageous example of judicial overreach.
“The Government must appeal this decision and challenge this new, expansionist interpretation of Article 8 of the ECHR.
“But Starmer can’t because his Attorney General is blindly wedded to international law.
“Hermer is Jeremy Corbyn in a barrister’s wig, and if Starmer has any backbone he’ll purge him the same way. Starmer can either put the interests of the country first, or stand by his mate and donor.”
Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman said Britain must leave the ECHR.
In a social media post on X/formerly Twitter she said: “This is a terrible judgement that will have dire consequences.
“We have outsourced control of our borders to a foreign court, and it must end,” she said.
“We need to leave the ECHR, scrap the HRA and take back control of our laws and borders.”