Asylum seeker awarded £100k after complaining she was ‘treated like a criminal’ when overstaying in Britain: ‘Reckless disregard for her rights’

An asylum seeker has been given £100,000 after she complained that she had been “treated like a criminal” after she overstayed in the UK.

Nadra Almas, from Pakistan, fought a 16-year legal battle against the Home Office to remain in the UK.

Almas, who initially came to the UK on a student visa in 2004, argued that she could not return home due to religious reasons.

She said that her Christian faith would make a likely victim of religious persecution in her home country.

Almas, whose visa expired five months after she came to the country, was served a notice of removal in 2008.

The High Court in Birmingham heard that between 2005 and 2014, she made six applications to stay in the UK.

In 2018, she was detained by Home Office officials who informed her that she would be deported. However, two weeks later, she was released.

For three years whilst she waited for the Government to grant her refugee status, she could not work or travel. She also could not claim any benefits.

During this time she had to rely on friends and family to get by, an experience that “undermined her self-esteem and caused her embarrassment”.

This was a breach of her rights to a family life under the human Rights Act, the original judge, Recorder McNeill, ruled.

“She could not travel, she could not move freely, she could not develop her private and family life because her status was uncertain, and she could not work or claim public funds and had to rely on the little support from the asylum system,” the judge said.

“She was wholly unable to work and her home life was affected by the anxiety she felt following her period of detention, feeling like a criminal and not a good person with her friends and family because she had been detained.”

More to follow…