OA036042014 & OA037802014

For the Appellants: Mr S Canter, Counsel, instructed by Farani Javid Taylor Solicitors LPP

The Appellants are citizens of Nigeria who appealed against the refusal of entry clearance to grant them entry to the UK as the dependent children of their father and British citizen, Mr Peter Ayo Ogieriakhi. Their applications were refused under paragraph 297 of the Rules and under Article 8 ECHR the date of refusal being 3 rd February 2014. Their subsequent appeal to Judges Daldry and Denson was dismissed.

In short, the judges gave two substantial reasons for dismissing the appeal. Firstly, the Sponsor had not shown he had exercised "sole responsibility" for the children and secondly, the accommodation was not adequate.

The Grounds of Appeal point to the fact that the judges failed to apply paragraph 297(d) of the Rules which significantly did not require the element of "sole responsibility" to be satisfied. This was because the Appellants' mother was deceased and the judges appeared to have overlooked that. No more need be said about that aspect because the parties agreed that this was a material error.

The judges also found that the accommodation was "inadequate" as stated by the Sponsor but it was said in the grounds that the judges were also wrong in their conclusion on this aspect given that the property was a two bedroom flat with a "three bed space". Given that the Sponsor lived alone at the date of decision the property would not be overcrowded. It was also said that the Sponsor did not say in his evidence that the property was "inadequate" for the three persons but merely said he wanted to improve the size of the accommodation once entry clearance was granted.