A group of Turkish entrepreneurs have lost a High Court case which they brought against the Home Office over a change to immigration rules last year.
The Alliance of Turkish Businesspeople had brought the judicial review challenge claiming the Home Office had acted unlawfully in imposing additional requirements on Turkish business people and their dependants if they wanted to obtain indefinite leave to remain.
However on Monday Justice James Dingemans dismissed the judicial review claim and found in favour of the Home Office. The case centred around changes to the holders of Turkish Business Person ECAA visas after the government announced last March it was ending the right of ECAA visa holders to settle permanently in the UK after four years and it was imposing additional tests.
The new hurdles included asking for five years of residence instead of four years, payment of application fees of £2,389 per person and passing an English language test. The Alliance claimed the changes caused real hardship to Turkish people and their dependants and the change of policy for those who had not applied for indefinite leave to remain was unfair and unlawful under the terms of the European Community Association Agreement (ECAA) with Turkey — known as the Ankara agreement — to which the UK became a party in 1973.
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 judgment the changes to the policy can be objectively justified as a proportionate response to the public interest,” he said.
Source: FT
