Bureaucracy and expense of the immigration tribunal

A leading West Midlands-based lawyer has complained about people having to travel from Northern Ireland to Birmingham for immigration and asylum cases instead of having them heard in their own area.

Barrister Elizabeth Norman of Rowchester Chambers called for a revision of the situation after representing a couple from Northern Ireland at Birmingham Immigration and Asylum Tribunal.

Lisa Lyttle of Waringstown, County Armagh, and her husband both travelled to Birmingham to appeal against a Home Office refusal to allow Lyttle's ailing 81-year-old mother to join her from the US so she could care for her.

Norman said the couple were both in ill-health, apart from Lyttle's mother, and they should not have been made to travel to Birmingham because of the inconvenience and cost.

Details of the cost of the journey were not revealed, but Norman said after the hearing that such cases should be held in Northern Ireland.

The Home Office had refused to allow Lyttle's mother to go to Northern Ireland from the US state of Georgia after concern about whether there would be a 'significant amount of money available to look after her' should funds run out - prompting the Lyttles' appeal.

'This is a matter of public interest,' said John Lister, representing the Home Office.

Following a one-day hearing, the tribunal is to make a decision at a later date.

A tribunal spokesperson said there was a facility for hearings in Northern Ireland but that he could not comment on the Lyttles' complaints as they were not allowed to discuss individual cases.

They pointed out, however, that the Birmingham tribunal was one of the main centres for immigration and asylum cases in the UK.

Peter Swingler is a freelance journalist