17 NOVEMBER 2015 – MEANING OF “UNDULY HARSH” IN THE IMMIGRATION RULES

In the case of MAB (para 399; “unduly harsh”) USA [2015] UKUT 435 (IAC) Upper Tribunal Judge Grubb and Deputy Upper Tribunal Judge Phillips, sitting at Newport, decided that the words “unduly harsh” do NOT import or require any kind of balancing exercise and that the statutory human rights presumptions:

1. 1. 1. The phrase “unduly harsh” in para 399 of the Rules (and s.117C(5) of the 2002 Act) does not import a balancing exercise requiring the public interest to be weighed against the circumstances of the individual (whether child or partner of the deportee). The focus is solely upon an evaluation of the consequences and impact upon the individual concerned.

2. Whether the consequences of deportation will be “unduly harsh” for an individual involves more than “uncomfortable, inconvenient, undesirable, unwelcome or merely difficult and challenging” consequences and imposes a considerably more elevated or higher threshold.

1. 3. The consequences for an individual will be “harsh” if they are “severe” or “bleak” and they will be “unduly” so if they are ‘inordinately’ or ‘excessively’ harsh taking into account of all the circumstances of the individual.

(MK (section 55 – Tribunal options) Sierra Leone [2015] UKUT 223 (IAC) at [46] and BM and others (returnees – criminal and non-criminal) DRC CG [2015] UKUT 293 (IAC) at [109] applied.)
However, in the newly reported case of KMO (section 117 – unduly harsh) [2015] UKUT 543 (IAC) Upper Tribunal Judge Southern, sitting at Field House, has held that the words “unduly harsh” DO import a balancing exercise that requires consideration of the statutory presumptions introduced by the Immigration Act 2014:

”

The Immigration Rules, when applied in the context of the deportation of a foreign criminal, are a complete code. Where an assessment is required to be made as to whether a person meets the requirements of para 399 of the Immigration Rules, as that comprises an assessment of that person’s claim under article 8 of the ECHR, it is necessary to have regard, in making that assessment, to the matters to which the Tribunal must have regard as a consequence of the provisions of s117C. In particular, those include that the more serious the offence committed, the greater is the public interest in deportation of a foreign criminal. Therefore, the word “unduly” in the phrase “unduly harsh” requires consideration of whether, in the light of the seriousness of the offences committed by the foreign criminal and the public interest considerations that come into play, the impact on the child, children or partner of the foreign criminal being deported is inordinately or excessively harsh.
”