Blunkett fails in appeal to deport Kurdish asylum seeker

BRITISH Home Secretary David Blunkett has failed to overturn a court ruling which dealt a blow to the Government’s “fast track” deportation procedure for failed asylum-seekers.

The Law Lords, by a 3-2 majority, dismissed his challenge to a Court of Appeal decision that an Iraqi Kurd was entitled to stay in Britain until his appeal on human rights grounds had been heard.

The decision quashed Mr Blunkett's ruling that Mohamed Ali Razgar, aged 26, must be sent back to Germany the first country in which he sought asylum after fleeing Saddam Hussein's regime because his human rights claim was "manifestly unfounded".

Lawyers for Mr Razgar argued that the European Convention on Human Rights would be breached if he were sent back to Germany because his health would suffer and there was a risk of his attempting suicide. He had tried to kill himself in the past as a result of two years of detention and torture in Iraq.

Lord Bingham said yesterday that Mr Razgar's claim was not bound to fail. He might well establish in his appeal that removal would constitute a threat to his private life under Article 8 of the Convention.

"In this country he is able, with psychiatric help, to enjoy a measure of freedom, independence and autonomy which, arguably, he could not enjoy in Germany, where he knows no one, may not receive needed medical help and may be accommodated in a remote refugee centre."

Mr Razgar was initially refused asylum by the German authorities, but then travelled to Britain and claimed asylum there in February, 1999.

The German authorities accepted responsibility for him under the Dublin Convention, which aims to prevent multiple asylum applications being made throughout the EU. It provides that asylum applicants must have their cases dealt with in the first EU country in which they have an opportunity to claim after fleeing persecution.