AK (Afghanistan) –v- Entry Clearance Officer & anr

Thursday 1st July 2021

Application for permission to appeal, with appeal to follow if granted, the decision of Margaret Obi sitting as Deputy Judge of the High Court dated 26 September 2019 to refuse a renewed application for permission to apply for judicial review.

The applicants are eleven siblings, born between 1995 and 2005 in Afghanistan. Their sponsor is their older adult sister, who has been appointed their carer by the Afghan Court following their mother’s abandonment and due to their father’s mental incapacity. The sponsor was granted refugee status in the UK in 2012. In November 2019 the sponsor’s husband was granted leave to enter under the principle of family reunion, but the applicants were not as Afghanistan is not a signatory to the Hague Convention. In December 2017 the applicants were granted 33 months leave to remain outside the Immigration Rules. The applicants challenge (i) Paragraph 309A of the Immigration Rules, which sets out the scope of de facto adoptions, as unlawful and (ii) the SSHD’s decision to grant 33 months limited leave and not indefinite leave to remain. Para 309A requires a child to live with their adopted parent for the 18 months immediately preceding their application for entry clearance.

View hearing:

Part 1