Thursday, December 14, 2017

Removing Rough Sleeper

From the BBC:
"Deporting EU rough sleepers from UK unlawful, High Court rules"
A Home Office policy of removing EU citizens found sleeping rough on UK streets is unlawful and must stop, the High Court has ruled. A judge said the measure, introduced last year, was discriminatory and broke freedom of movement rules. Campaigners brought the case on behalf of three men facing removal. The government said it was disappointed by the ruling - which applies to people from the EU and European economic area - but would not be appealing. The Public Interest Law Unit (PILU) at Lambeth Law Centre, which took out the judicial review, said the decision would affect hundreds of people. It said the Home Office had been carrying out "regular raids" on locations where officials believed they would find European nationals who could be deported. In her judgement the judge, Mrs Justice Lang, also said the Home Office should not have been using the raids as a chance to verify whether the rough sleepers were abusing their right to reside in another European nation. PILU said the High Court had shown itself willing to protect the rights of a vulnerable group of workers, adding: "Homelessness cannot humanely be dealt with by detaining or forcibly removing homeless people."  The case was brought on behalf of three men facing removal orders from the Home Office. The judge said the order should be dropped against one of them, a Latvian, Gunars Gureckis, while a Polish man, Mariusz Cielecki, is now expected to appeal against his. The order against another Polish man, Mariusz Perlinski, had already been dropped. The Home Office had argued the EU's Free Movement Directive allowed member states to impose restrictions on people in certain situations, including where there were concerns about security, public health, or fraud. A spokesman said: "We will consider carefully what steps are necessary to ensure we reflect the judgment in future enforcement." He added that most of the people removed under the measure had not exercised their rights to residency in the UK when required and were therefore not lawfully in the country.
^ It seems there are so many loop-holes with the EU's "Freedom of Movement" that tend to make it neither free or allow for much movement. I had never heard of the term "rough sleeper" before this article. ^



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