PracticeAnthony specialises in all areas of immigration, asylum and human rights law, as well as related public / civil law fields of detention, social welfare law (including age disputes, asylum support) and discrimination. He appears before the First Tier and Upper Tier Tribunals (Immigration and Asylum Chamber), Employment Tribunals, the County Court, High Court and Court of Appeal. Anthony is public access accredited and welcomes enquiries from people or organisations seeking advice or representation in his areas of specialism. Immigration and Asylum Anthony frequently appears in both tiers of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber in statutory appeals raising asylum, international protection and family reunion; and regularly is instructed in protection-related judicial review challenges, e.g. to 'Dublin' removals and refusals of fresh claims for international protection. He also specialises in all areas of EEA and non-EEA immigration including applications, and High Court/ Tribunal challenges, on behalf of workers, businesspeople, students, graduates and other EU citizens/ settled persons and their family members. Anthony has a broad knowledge of the rapidly changing, and extremely complex, Points Based System and has been involved in numerous successful Tribunal and High Court challenges to PBS refusals. He is also happy to advise on matters involving nationality law. Anthony is experienced in conducting challenges to deportation and has been instructed in a number of successful appeals featuring convictions for manslaughter, serious assault and drug offences. Anthony is accustomed to working to tight deadlines, particularly in the context of the detained fast track and urgent judicial review challenges to removal directions or deportation arrangements; and has persuaded High Court judges on the telephone, and on paper, to stop enforcement action. He also regularly advises on potential claims against the Home Office for unlawful detention/ false imprisonment to seek release and/ or compensation arising from detention under immigration powers. Discrimination, Employment and Civil Law Anthony also practises in employment and discrimination law and conducts multi-day Employment Tribunal hearings in complex discrimination claims. He has also advised in relation to proceedings in the County Court against the Home Office for negligence and breach of human rights in the handling of clients' immigration cases. In keeping with his commitment to pro bono work Anthony regularly undertakes cases for the Bar Pro Bono Unit, Bail for Immigration Detainees and other legal advice organisations. Notable CasesJD (Congo) & others v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2012] EWCA Civ 327 (Lord Neuberger MR, Maurice Kay VP and Sullivan LJ): leading case on the application of the second-tier appeals test when seeking to appeal from the Upper Tribunal to the Court of Appeal (led by Raza Husain QC). R (Mhlanga) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (CO/7124/2011) 16 December 2011: Singh J held that the continued detention of a Zimbabwean foreign national prisoner, after more than five years in immigration detention, was unlawful (led by Stephanie Harrison). A hearing to determine the legality of detention between October 2006 and December 2011 is listed in June 2012. DA/00214/2009 Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber), 22 July 2010 (Sedley LJ, Perkins, Lane SIJJ): Appeal against deportation allowed under Article 8 ECHR; Appellant had two convictions for possession of Class A drugs with intent to supply and was sentenced to 18 months and, shortly after release from prison, 3 years imprisonment. Appellant had an extensive family life including a wife and two children all of whom had British nationality. Bozkurt v Secretary of State for the Home Department, IA/01698/2009, February 2010, AIT: an Ankara Agreement case where applicability of the standstill clause was disputed on abuse of rights grounds. Eshun & Gleeson SIJJ held that an undated policy, which contained a restrictive definition of 'fraud' (i.e. 'proactive deception'), was applicable in January 2009. Appeal allowed; remitted to SSHD. DS (India) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2009] EWCA Civ 544; [2010] Imm AR 8 : a challenge to dismissal of an Article 8 ECHR deportation appeal. Grounds included contention that the AIT applied a literal 'insurmountable obstacles' approach to proportionality instead of assessing the reasonableness of expecting family members to relocate. The Court construed a finding of unreasonableness but nevertheless held deportation to be proportionate given the seriousness of the offending and, in the circumstances, the weight to be attached to the public interest. BackgroundAnthony trained at Garden Court and, before this, was active in several human rights organisations in the Caribbean and Central America. He worked at Jamaicans for Justice (Kingston, Jamaica), where he provided significant research assistance in Michael Gayle v Jamaica (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Washington DC, Case 12.418, Report 92/05), a case concerning the unlawful killing of a mentally ill man by security forces. Anthony also worked at Derechos en Acción, Guatemala City, on an IACHR application responding to assassinations of landless farmers by persons allegedly connected with the banana industry. Prior to that, funded by the European Commission, Anthony worked at the Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights, Kingston, on capital appeals to the Privy Council, in particular, R v Kenneth Clarke [2004] UKPC 5; (2004) 148 SJLB 146. He also volunteered for the London Detainee Support Group, and Enfield Law Centre for whom he provided welfare benefits advice to unaccompanied minor refugees. Publications"The Tribunal's new role in Article 8 Statutory Appeals," (2007) Journal of Immigration Asylum and Nationality Law, Vol 21 No 2 129 (an analysis of the impact of Huang & Kashmiri v SSHD [2007] UKHL 11 on Article 8 ECHR appeals to the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal). Professional Memberships- Immigration Law Practitioners Association
- Liberty
Profile updated April 2012
|
