The Law Lords have ruled that the Government acted unlawfully in its attempts to prevent Romany Czechs from entering the UK.

Commentating on the ruling, Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said:

‘This ruling exposes the racism at the heart of the Government’s asylum policy. The message was absolutely clear: 'Roma not welcome in UK'.'

Facts:
In 2001 the Czech Republic agreed that the UK could station immigration officers at Prague Airport to screen all passengers travelling to the UK. The aim was to detect people who wanted to claim asylum in the UK and prevent them from travelling. The overwhelming number of passengers who were refused permission to enter the UK under this operation were Roma, regardless of whether or not an individual Romany Czech actually intended to claim asylum in the UK. Statistics showed that Roma were 400 times more likely to be refused entry to the UK than non-Roma.

Liberty represented the European Roma Rights Centre and six individual Czech Roma who were refused permission to enter the UK under this practice.

Counsel:
Anthony Lester QC
Dinah Rose
Shaheed Fatima
(All from Blackstone Chambers)

Arguments and decision:
We argued that this operation discriminated against Roma on the grounds of race contrary to the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 and international law.

The High Court had decided that the practice did not discriminate against Roma. The Court of Appeal decided that the practice almost inevitably discriminated against Roma, but that that discrimination was effectively justified because Roma were more likely than non-Roma to seek asylum.

The House of Lords decided that the practice was 'inherently and systematically discriminatory' against Roma.