Covid-19 and Immigration Detention Centres

At the start of the year, some 1,200 immigrants were being held in immigration detention in the UK. The power to detain immigrants is separate from detention of individuals as part of a criminal sentence. There is a presumption against detention of immigrants, and immigration detention can only be in…

Life-Saving Cancer Treatment Not a Ground for Asylum

R (ERA) v Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust [2019] EWHC 1249 (Admin)  This article originally appeared in Issue 4 (March 2020). The High Court held that a person seeking to avoid removal from the United Kingdom on the basis that she would not have access to life-saving…

Discrimination and the NHS Charging Regime

Shu & Anor, R (ota) v The Secretary of State for Health And Social Care & Anor [2019] EWHC 3569 (Admin)  This article originally appeared in Issue 4 (March 2020). SHU, a national of Ghana, entered the UK in 2004 without entry clearance. She gave birth to E in 2007.…

Eligibility of Non-UK Residents for NHS Care

R (Johnson) v Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust [2019] EWHC 1143 (Admin)  This article originally appeared in Issue 4 (March 2020). Background  The Claimant was seriously ill with cancer, for which she was receiving medical treatment, most recently a cycle of palliative chemotherapy infusions. The “overseas visitors team” at…