United Kingdom - Ciceri v. The Secretary of State for the Home Department

Court name: Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber)
State: United Kingdom
Date of decision:
Legal instruments: European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)
Key aspects: Acquisition of nationality, Country of return, Deportation and removal, Deprivation of nationality, Refugee status determination, Respect for private and family life

This appeal to the Upper Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber concerns the Secretary of State for the Home Department’s (hereinafter SSHD) decision to deprive the appellant of his British citizenship. The Upper Tribunal addressed the issue of whether Article 8(1) of the ECHR was engaged and whether the SSDH discretionary decision under section 40(2) or (3) to deprive the individual of his or her British citizenship was exercised correctly. The grounds for judicial review is that the delay in acting on the appellant’s fraud reduces the public interest in deprivation and is a disproportionate interference with Article 8 ECHR.

United Kingdom - R (on the application of AM) v. Secretary of State for the Home Department

Court name: Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber)
State: United Kingdom
Date of decision:
Legal instruments: European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)
Key aspects: Access to social and economic rights, Determination/confirmation of nationality, Establishing identity, Establishing identity, Respect for private and family life, Statelessness and asylum, Statelessness determination

The case concerns a Belarusian individual who had entered the UK in 1998, whose asylum applications were refused and who spent the subsequent eighteen years in immigration bail as his identity could not be confirmed and he could not be deported to Belarus. He complained that the state of “limbo” in which he was as a result of his immigration bail constituted an infringement of his right to private life. He also alleged that he had become stateless as result of losing his Belarusian nationality. The court found that there was a violation of Article 8 of the ECHR. On the statelessness question, it was held he could not be considered a stateless person. 

United Kingdom - KV v Secretary of State for the Home Department

Court name: Court of Appeal (Civil Division)
State: United Kingdom
Date of decision:
Legal instruments: 1961 Statelessness Convention, 1997 European Convention on Nationality, European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)
Key aspects: Burden of proof, Deprivation of nationality, Respect for private and family life, Statelessness determination

This case, heard first before the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) (the “First-tier Tribunal”) followed by the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) (the “Upper Tribunal”), concerned the Secretary of State for the Home Department’s decision under section 40(3) of the British Nationality Act 1981 (the “1981 Act”) to deprive the appellant of his British citizenship granted on 11 December 2007 on the ground that, in his application, the appellant had deliberately concealed the fact that he had earlier obtained a grant of British citizenship using false details. 

Before the Court of Appeal, the key issues to be determined were (i) on whom the burden of proof lay to prove that the appellant would be stateless if deprived of British citizenship, and (ii) whether the Upper Tribunal had correctly determined that the First-tier Tribunal’s failure to consider the issue of the appellant’s statelessness was immaterial.