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In an important judgment, the High Court today declared that the Home Secretary’s decision not to allow entry to the UK for six refugees, and their 19 children, currently stranded on an MoD base in Cyprus since 1998 in the Sovereign Base Area, is unlawful and must be quashed. 

In the ruling the judge, Mr Justice Foskett, has ordered Theresa May to retake her decision in light of the judgment and all relevant up-to-date factors.

In October 1998, a group of 75 individuals from Ethiopia, Iraq, Sudan and Syria, were washed up on the British Sovereign Base Area (SBA) after a boat in which they were travelling to Italy foundered off the coast of Cyprus.

The six Claimants and their children have remained living on the SBA for the past 17 years stuck in a legal limbo. Many of the children have spent their whole lives on the SBA and those who were born there possess British Overseas Territories Citizenship. It is accepted that they cannot remain permanently there.  Their living conditions are and have been unacceptable.

The Claimants have been recognised as Refugees by the British Government, although the British Government has disputed the application of the UN Refugee Convention.

The Claimants claimed that the Refugee Convention applied to the Sovereign Base Area and that the UK could only comply with the obligations owed to the Claimants by allowing their resettlement in the UK.

Tom Hickman and Jason Pobjoy acted for the Claimants, instructed by Leigh Day solicitors.

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