THE Alliance of Turkish Business people have lost a High Court case which they introduced against the Home Office due to amendment made to the immigration rules last year.
The Alliance of Turkish Businesspeople had introduced the judicial review challenge advocating that the Home Office had operated unlawfully in inflicting further requirements on Turkish business people and their dependants if they wanted to hold indefinite leave to remain.
Nonetheless on Monday Justice James Dingemans dismissed the judicial review claim and found in favour of the Home Office. The case centred around amendments to the holders of Turkish Business Person ECAA visas after the government declared last March that it was concluding the right of ECAA visa holders to settle permanently in the UK after four years and it was imposing additional tests.
The High Court heard that there were about 6,000 Turkish business people and their dependants who were on the path to indefinite leave to remain status under the old policy before it was changed last March.
Justice Dingemans dismissed the judicial review claim. “In my judgement the changes to the policy can be objectively justified as a proportionate response to the public interest,” he said.
“This is because the Home Office was entitled to attempt to introduce some uniformity with the nationals of other states, and because changes to the requirements have been restricted so as to reduce the impact on the applicants for ILR.” he added in the ruling.
Leni Candan, founder of the Alliance of Turkish Businesspeople made the following statement in regard to the dismissal: “We are very disappointed by this judgement, especially because the judge himself conceded that the Home Office’s policy changes breached our legitimate expectations. We are saddened that the very real difficulties faced by business owners and their families as a result of this policy change have not been deemed unfair enough.”
Candan also added that the Alliance is considering to appeal.