Secret race discrimination by the UKBA against Pakistan nationals
Section 29 of the Equality Act 2010 prohibits discrimination by public authorities. Schedule 3, paragraph 17 of the Act allows for the Minister to personally authorise discrimination ‘with respect to a particular case or class of case’.
This is, in effect, a law which permits the Minister to discriminate directly against an individual or ‘class of cases’. Evidence is starting to unfold that the UK Border Agency has drawn up a list of nationalities and countries against which discrimination is specifically allowed in relation to applications for UK Immigration and, that that list is a secret list. The list is not available publicly and Entry Clearance Officers are explicitly forbidden from disclosing the existence of the list.
John Vine, Chief Inspector of the UK Border Agency, did however disclose late last year that visa officers were discriminating against Pakistani visa applicants. In his damning report on the Entry Clearance Officers in Abu Dhabi, John Vine stated:
“6.17 We therefore reviewed our findings from our file sampling and established inconsistent approaches were taken as regards the weight attached to evidence, depending on the nationality of the customer. We found that customers from Gulf Cooperation Council countries, who provided limited evidence to support their applications, were granted entry clearance, whereas customers from Pakistan were also being refused for not providing enough information, even when such evidence was not stipulated as a requirement in the guidance provided by UK Border Agency. For example, Pakistan customers were refused because they had not provided:
- land registry title deeds to properties
- accommodation reports from council housing departments; and
- evidence of family, economic and social ties to Pakistan.
6.18 We are therefore concerned that the UK Border Agency may be discriminating against those customers applying in Pakistan for entry clearance to the UK.”
The UK Border Agency response, was weak, unconvincing and poigniant in it’s complete failure to deny the existence of any discrimination whatsoever!
Essentially, very different criteria and standards were being applied by the same visa officers depending on whether they were deciding Pakistani cases or other cases at the regional hub in Abu Dhabi. As a firm of solicitors at the forfront of immigration law we are increasingly witnessing blanket and unreasonable decisions to refuse applications seeking entry clearance to the UK from certain nationals including Iranians, Afghan’s and Pakistani nationals. The discriminatory authorisation was sneaked into law by the Immigration Minister, Damian Green, with minimal publicity. The discriminatory authorisation reads as follows:
The Minister for Immigration (Damian Green): (direct link to announcement)
I have made an authorisation under paragraph 17(4)(a) of schedule 3 to the Equality Act 2010, to enable the UK Border Agency to give greater scrutiny or priority to particular nationalities in carrying out entry clearance, border control and removals functions.
This authorisation came into force on 10 February 2011. It replaces the Race Relations (Immigration and Asylum) Authorisation 2004, which came into force on 12 February 2004 and has been revoked.
The authorisation allows the UK Border Agency to target its resources effectively in managing UK immigration controls. In particular, it lets entry clearance and border control staff give greater scrutiny, and staff removing immigration offenders greater priority, to particular nationalities on the basis of statistical and intelligence-based evidence of the risk they pose to those controls.
The authorisation is made under the nationality exception for immigration functions contained in the Equality Act 2010. It replaces an equivalent authorisation for border control functions and removals made in 2004 under the Race Relations Act 1976, and allows a similar evidence-based approach to risk assessment and targeting to be applied overseas by entry clearance staff. The nationalities covered by the authorisation will be reviewed each quarter by the UK Border Agency and submitted for ministerial approval.
I have made an equivalent authorisation for Northern Ireland under article 20C of the Race Relations (Northern Ireland) Order 1997. This authorisation came into force on 10 February 2011.
I am placing a copy of the authorisations in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament.
The announcement and authorisation state that the list of countries will be reviewed by UKBA quarterly based on certain criteria, and the list must be personally approved by the minister. This effectively means that the list will never be published and the list of countries against which direct racial discrimination is now permitted will remain a closely guarded secret by the coalition Government. Attempts to obtain this information through a Freedom of Information request.
In the meantime we are filing all appeals against refusal of entry clearance on behalf of our clients, citing Race Discrimination as one of the grounds of appeal and we are working toward bringing this matter forward toward a Judicial Review application. Any applicants seeking entry to the UK who feel that they have been racially or unfairly discriminated against can contact us for a free initial assessment of their case. Call us today on 020 8401 7352
