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Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

The Minister said that not every period of detention will be counted. I will ask about one group of detentions that I think he will agree would have to be counted in whatever system he devises. I refer to cases where it is found that a person was detained unlawfully. I recall the case of a refugee from Cote d’Ivoire who was detained for something like six months. I wrote to Beverley Hughes, who was then the Minister who dealt with immigration, no less than nine times, without getting a reply. In the end, when this person was released, she brought proceedings against the Government in the High Court and won damages of £60,000. In a case of that kind, where the Government are plainly wrong and have had it drawn to their attention that they are detaining a person unlawfully, surely it would be unfair not to count the period that the person spends in unlawful detention towards the qualifying period.