NKM -v- Secretary of State for the Home Department (anonymity order)

Administrative CourtHigh CourtKing's Bench DivisionAnonymity Order

Claim number: AC-2024-LON-000985

In the High Court of Justice
King’s Bench Division
Administrative Court

21 March 2024

Before:

The Honourable Mr Justice Calver

Between:

The King on the application of
NKM

-v-

Secretary of State for the Home Department

Order

On an application by the Claimant for directions and anonymity
Following consideration of the documents lodged by the Claimant

ORDER by the Honourable Mr Justice Calver

1. The Defendant shall, by no later than 4pm on Friday 29 March 2024, file and serve a response to the Claimant’s application for, and four-page submission in support of, interim relief.

2. The Claimant’s Application for interim relief shall be considered by the court as soon as possible during the week of 1 April 2024.

3. Pursuant to CPR Rule 39.2(4), anonymity is granted in the terms of the Schedule appended to this draft order.

4. Costs reserved.

Reasons

1. Non-disclosure of the identity of the Claimant is clearly necessary in order to protect the interests of the Claimant as an asylum-seeker with an outstanding protection claim who may be exposed to a real risk of ill-treatment in the event of return to his country of origin. Accordingly, publication of details revealing the identity of the Claimant ought to be prohibited.

2. An urgent decision on interim relief is necessary but the Defendant must be given a short but fair period of time to respond to the application (by 29 March 2024). The Claimant is said to be a victim of torture or other serious violence, of trafficking and is disabled. As a result he suffers from serious mental distress which it is said has worsened in the three months that he has been detained by the Defendant at Wethersfield, a former Ministry of Defence military barrack in rural Essex. At the time of the Claimant’s allocation to Wethersfield, the Claimant points out that the Defendant’s own Allocation Policy expressly provided that asylum seekers who are victims of torture or of trafficking in particular are not suitable to be accommodated at ex MoD sites, including Wethersfield. He accordingly seeks relocation to suitable single-occupancy asylum support accommodation.