Withdrawal of protection status

United Kingdom

Country Report: Withdrawal of protection status Last updated: 10/07/24

Author

Sonia Lenegan

The grounds for withdrawal / revocation of international protection are set out in the Immigration Rules and include: (a) the grounds for exclusion in the Refugee Convention; (b) misrepresentation of facts to obtain refugee status; and (c) being a danger to the UK.[1]

The definition of someone being a danger to the UK includes where they are convicted of an offence where the sentence is at least twelve months, this is a change brought in by the Nationality and Borders Act 2022.[2] The same provisions are applied to those who have been granted humanitarian protection.[3] A case promulgated in 2021 confirmed that Humanitarian Protection (subsidiary protection) can be revoked in cases of serious criminality (correcting a First Tier Tribunal decision that a higher threshold must be reached).[4]

The procedure is the same as the one outlined in the section on Cessation. A case in 2019 confirmed that revocation procedures could not apply to the dependants of refugees unless the dependant had been recognised in their own right.[5]

 

 

 

[1] Rules 339A to 339AB Immigration Rules.

[2] Section 72 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/41/section/72.

[3] Immigration Rules paragraph 339D to 339GD.

[4] Upper Tribunal, Kakarash (revocation of HP, respondent’s policy) Iraq [2021] UKUT 236 (IAC), available at: https://bit.ly/3vfxEYP.

[5] Court of Appeal, JS (Uganda) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWCA Civ 1670, available at: https://bit.ly/2RVyFjm.

Table of contents

  • Statistics
  • Overview of the legal framework
  • Overview of the main changes since the previous report update
  • Asylum Procedure
  • Reception Conditions
  • Detention of Asylum Seekers
  • Content of International Protection