Unlawful detention and family separation

This case involved an Indian father, AJS, who was separated from his three-year-old daughter while he was unlawfully detained by the Home Office under immigration powers. The child had been placed in local authority care and the Family Court had ordered that it was in her best interests to be reunited with her father, but if he was not released within a certain limited timeframe she would have to be placed for adoption.

Despite the Family Court order, the Home Office maintained a decision to detain AJS under immigration powers, transferring him to a detention centre so far away that any contact with his daughter was impossible and refusing his applications for release on bail. When AJS was finally released after three months, the Home Office then provided a bail address which was many miles away from his daughter and imposed a daily curfew which rendered the Court-ordered reunification plans impossible.