IA126912014

This is an appeal by the Secretary of State against a decision by the First-tier Tribunal (Judge Metzer) who in a decision promulgated on 31 st October 2014 allowed the appeal on human rights grounds under Article 8 ECHR. For ease of reference I shall refer to the parties as the Secretary of State who is the appellant in this matter and to the Claimant.

The Claimant is a citizen of Mauritius and her date of birth is 13.10.1954. She entered the UK as student in May 2005 and was granted further leave to remain until 2013. Her application for indefinite leave to remain as an adult dependent relative under paragraph 371 was refused on 19 th February 2014.

I observe that paragraph 371 is no longer open to application having been replaced by provisions in the new rules ECDR. Yet in the reasons for refusal letter the Secretary of State considered that the Claimant had applied for a purpose not covered by the Rules. She considered the matter outside of the rules with reference to Article 3 on medical grounds, Appendix FM and paragraph 276ADE. Article 8 was not considered as the Secretary of State found no exceptional or compelling circumstances.

In a decision and reasons the Tribunal found that the Claimant lived in the UK for over 9 years, all of her family were living in the UK, she suffered from various medical problems including psoriasis, angina, diabetes, osteoarthritis, facial neuralgia and a recently diagnosed lipoma (sic). She was financially dependent on her sons in the UK. There was no one in Mauritius who could look after her, there were no family members living there and the Claimant had severed all ties in Mauritius.

(i) The Secretary of State argued that the Tribunal�s approach to Article 8 was flawed. He failed to make findings as to the lack of social, cultural and linguistic ties in Mauritius, which was perverse given that Claimant had lived for 50 years in that country.