News

The proposal to stop judges reviewing asylum decisions in the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants etc) Bill was attacked as an "abomination" by the Immigration Law Practitioners' Association last week.

"To deprive immigration decisions of judicial scrutiny is draconian and a constitutional abomination", said the association's Laurie Fransman in evidence to the House of Commons select committee on constitutional affairs.

Nick Oakeshott, of the Refugee Legal Centre, told the committee that the move could conflict with the UK's obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.

Chairperson of the Bar Council Stephen Irwin said lawyers and others who worked with asylum cases felt strongly about the clause. He warned it could seal off asylum work from mainstream legal practice.