Refugee’s Treatment ‘Revolts’ Judge

An immigration judge has called for an urgent review of the procedures for detaining illegal immigrants after expressing his “revulsion” at the manner in which a Chilean refugee facing deportation was treated by the Home Office.

In a newly-published written judgment, PM Petherbridge, chairman of the asylum and immigration tribunal which upheld Ernesto Leal’s appeal against deportation, is scathing in his criticism of the way the Home Office, and the former Secretary of State Charles Clarke, acted in the case of Ernesto Leal,who grew up in Scotland after his family fled the Pinochet regime in the 1970s .

Mr Petherbridge said: “We have to express our revulsion at the manner in which the Secretary of State went about detaining the appellant.
“We were horrified as we heard the oral evidence as to the manner in which the appellant had been detained.

“However, meritorious the Secretary of State’s desire to deport someone, the manner in which it is carried out must be in line with acceptable standards.

“We do not accept that the manner in which the Secretary of State detained the appellant in this instance met those standards and we ask the Secretary of State to seriously review its practice so as to prevent a situation, such as occurred to the appellant, not (sic) happening again.”

Mr Leal, was one of more than 1000 foreign national convicts whose cases were not considered for deportation on their release, but who were subsequently targeted under a Home Office push.

The arts and music promoter, who grew up in Fife, was arrested on May 1 this year when he returned home with his wife, Colette, to find 30 immigration and police officers in his flat.

Before the couple arrived the officers had ransacked their home and damaged computers. Mr Leal was held at a police station then taken to the high security Bellmarsh Prison.

He was allowed to remain in the UK after a tribunal upheld his appeal against deportation.

Mr Leal, 41, had been jailed in 2003 after being convicted of grievous bodily harm.

Mr Petherbridge said while he accepted that the crime which Mr Leal was convicted of, which arose from a fight in a pub in July 2001, was “truly dreadful”, it was also “completely out of character”.

The chairman said Mr Leal presented the Home Office with “very cogent reasons” why he should not be deported and, when he heard nothing further, assumed the matter was not being pursued.

Mr Petherbridge added that Mr Leal’s case against deportation was further strengthened by the fact he was the primary carer for his ill father and that his wife, who he married last August, would have no job prospects if they were forced to move to Chile.

It emerged yesterday that the Home Office is not to appeal against that decision to allow Mr Leal to stay.

Mr Leal said: “There are many cases like mine happening in the UK. Unfortunately they do not have the access, or in some cases the understanding of their situations, as we did.”