E.P. v. THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT FOR JUDICIAL REVIEW

For Judicial Review of a decision of the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber)

[1] The reclaimer (appellant) is a Zimbabwean national who claims to have arrived in the UK on 8 February 1999. He was granted 6 months leave to enter the country. He was subsequently granted leave to remain, as a student, until 31 October 2001 but he overstayed and made no further attempts to secure leave to remain.

[2] On 20 April 2007, he was convicted, in England, of driving with excess alcohol, driving whilst disqualified and of two counts of resisting arrest. On 14 May 2007, he was sentenced to 3 months and 20 days imprisonment and the court recommended that he be deported. He also had prior convictions; he has eight convictions in respect of nineteen offences. On 16 July 2007, the reclaimer claimed asylum. His claim was refused and, after an unsuccessful appeal, he was served with an order for deportation on 28 February 2008.

[3] On 13 December 2010, the reclaimer's daughter was born in the UK. On 10 June 2011, he married the mother of his daughter ("PM"), a woman who had been granted refugee status in the UK. She already had one older child of whom the reclaimer is not the father; that child had been living in Zimbabwe but was reunited with PM in April 2010. He made a fresh but unsuccessful claim under reference to the fact of his marriage and that he now had a child.

[4] The reclaimer appealed to the FTT and his appeal was heard on 23 January 2012. He relied, at that stage, on various grounds but now only seeks to rely on article 8 ECHR.