0
The Home Office has today agreed to withdraw the exclusion decision it made against Siyabonga Twala, a South African man who has lived in the UK since he was 15 and who has held Indefinite Leave to Remain throughout his exclusion from the UK.
Mr Twala was refused permission to board a flight to the UK from Turkey in December 2022 when he we returning to the UK after a holiday with his eight-year-old son. The Home Secretary subsequently made a decision formally excluding him from the UK in July 2023. This decision was based on the fact that Mr Twala had been convicted of a minor drugs offence in 2018. Mr Twala had not reoffended and the Defendant had not subsequently made a deportation order nor sought to deport him from the UK. In 2021 Mr Twala wrote to the Home Office, asking not to be deported in light of his close relationship with his son, for whom he was a primary carer. The Home Office did not respond to this.
The exclusion decision was challenged in judicial review proceedings, on the grounds that the decision was in breach of the Home Office’s Exclusion from the UK policy, was unfair, and breached Mr Twala’s right to family life with his son, contrary to Article 8 ECHR. The Home Office defended the claim until the day before the hearing, when it agreed to revoke the exclusion decision.
The Home Office has now agreed to allow Mr Twala to return to the UK, not to seek to deport him on his return, and to pay for his travel to the UK.
Tim Buley KC and Miranda Butler acted for Mr Twala, instructed by Duncan Lewis.
