DM (claimant/appellant) v The Secretary of State for the Home Department (defendant/respondent)

Wednesday 21 – Thursday 22 May 2025 Before Lord Justice Underhill, Vice-President of the Court of Appeal, Civil Division Lord Justice Newey Lord Justice Lewis By Appellant’s Notice filed on the 14 August 2024, this is an appeal against the decisions to refuse the application for judicial review made by Mr Justice Lavender in the High Court after the substantive hearings which took place on 31 March 2024 and 26 April 2024. The applicant is an Eritrean national born in 2002 and left Eritrea in 2014 and arrived in the UK in 2017. He was granted refugee status on 9 November 2018 and applied for his parents and 5 younger siblings to join him in the UK. Entry clearance was refused by the SSHD in June 2021 but the First Tier Tribunal allowed the appeal in March 2022. The appellant however continued to apply for judicial review based on the SSHD’s ongoing decision that parents and siblings of refugee children are not entitled to family reunion on the same basis as that of spouses and children of adult refuges under the Immigration Rules. He argues that the Rules should be changed so as to provide a route for child refugees.