Operation Nexus Challenge - help needed to find case studies

I am the director of the AIRE Centre and we are hoping for some assistance in finding some case studies in relation to a case we are bringing around Operation Nexus. Any case studies would be anonymised.

As you may know Operation Nexus is a joint initiative by the Police and the Border Force used to deport more foreign nationals from London (later extended to the cities of the West Midlands, Greater Manchester, Scotland, Merseyside, Cleveland, Kent, West Yorkshire, Cheshire, and Wales; and more recently Avon and Somerset and the East Midlands and Lancashire). It is a growing initiative and may contribute to the growing hostile environment towards EU nationals.

We are focusing on Operation Nexus as it applies to EU nationals.

In 2012 -14 the Home Office admitted in a Freedom of Information request that Operation Nexus had deported 93 Romanians, 57 Poles, 40 Lithuanians and 12 Latvians from London.

The AIRE Centre is taking legal action, by bringing a judicial review on the lawfulness (or not) of this operation. In most deportation cases individuals are deported based on proven conduct, usually demonstrated by the presence of a criminal conviction. However, in Nexus cases, the Home Office is provided with police intelligence regarding individuals who may be suspected of some form of criminality, or who may have had a criminal conviction many years ago or in some cases may not have been convicted of a criminal offence ever and have simply been encountered by the police. This intelligence information is then presented to the immigration tribunal considering any deportation appeal, often without any external scrutiny or challenge.

There is a clear prohibition under EU law and domestic regulations against the systematic verification of rights of residence of EEA nationals but this is what we say is happening under Operation Nexus. It is also doubtful that the Police are even authorised to carry out such immigration checks where there is no reasonable suspicion of a criminal offence being committed.

We are looking for individuals who have been questioned as part of Operation Nexus, either inside or outside police custody. They might not have been told they were being questioned as part of Operation Nexus, but were asked by the police about:-

·      their immigration status,

·      whether they were working and their work history

·      where they were living,

·      their family life

·      whether they have any criminal convictions in the UK or elsewhere etc.

It is really important that we try and find case studies to support our legal argument and any assistance would be much appreciated. As we have said any case studies will be anonymised, we would just need to know the client’s nationality, the circumstances in which they were encountered by the police, the types of questions they were asked, the location of any questioning, and what happened as a result of the questioning?

The task should not take very long but will be extremely useful in showing to the Court how Operation Nexus is operating on the ground. If we are successful in our challenge then it will have significant wider benefits across the UK for EU nationals living here, some of which may be your service users.

We need to file our evidence on 6 March 2017 so we would be grateful for your urgent attention to this request.

My direct e-mal if easier is .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

We are represented by Zubier Yazdani at Deighton Pierce Glynn - his email is .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Understand that the Aire Centre’s challenge to the Operation Nexus policy is to be heard in the High Court on 3rd & 4th May 2017

The Aire Centre’s appeal to the Court of Appeal ([2018] EWCA Civ 2837) from the order dated 21 July 2017 of McGowan J, dismissing its application for judicial review has been dismissed.