Travel Document Project
Removability & Cooperation
The consequences for an individual of being unable to obtain travel documents are wide-ranging and serious, whether or not they are detained. They can include:
- Criminal charges where non-cooperation with the travel document procedure is alleged by the UK Border Agency
- Perception of an increased risk of absconding, especially for individuals who are appeal rights exhausted
- Ineligibility for voluntary return packages or withdrawal of offers
- Ineligibility for early removal schemes for foreign national prisoners (see Prison Service Order 4630, ‘Immigration and foreign nationals in prisons', 2008, Section 9.2, and Prison Service Instruction 19/2008 Early removal scheme for foreign national prisoners - doubling of eligibility period, on extension of the processing period of the Early Removal Scheme (ERS))
- Destitution for people in receipt of asylum support
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'Taking all reasonable steps' & 'sustained effort'
DEFINITIONS
The UK Border Agency does not provide a definition of what it considers to be a sustained effort to obtain evidence of identity or nationality for the purpose of obtaining travel documents, not does it reveal in adequate detail what it might consider to be reasonable steps for individuals to take on a country by country basis.
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Criminal sanctions for non-cooperation: Section 35 action
The Asylum & Immigration (Treatment of Claimants etc.) Act 2004 introduced criminal penalties for individuals who fail to cooperate with attempts to obtain travel documents to facilitate their removal from the UK.
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UKBA amended instructions for documenting removals and the implementation of Section 35 of the Asylum & Immigration (treatment of claimants etc.) Act 2004 in non-compliant cases
These instructions are also contained in Chapter 17 Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act, Enforcement Instructions & Guidance (EIG) , from section 17.11 onwards.
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The relevant section of the Asylum & Immigration (Treatment of Claimants etc) Act 2004 (s.35)
Section 35 Deportation or removal: cooperation
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Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) guidance on prosecution for immigration offences including s35 action
Section 35(3) Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants etc) Act 2004: Non Cooperation with a Request for Information:
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ILPA/BID guidance to legal representatives on best practice in the event that a client is alleged to have failed to cooperate with the documentation process or where identity or nationality is disputed
Advice to legal representatives taken from "Challenging Immigration Detention: a best practice guide", ILPA/BID, 2003 (currently under revision)
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Nationality, citizenship & statelessness
A person without travel or identity documents is not on the face of it a stateless person, although this may later turn out to be the case. A stateless person is "a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law" (Article 1, UN Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons, ad 28.9.54, in force 6.6.60). De jure statelessness is strictly defined in a narrow and legal manner.
- Travel Document Project
- Policy & Caselaw
- Removability & Cooperation
- 'Taking all reasonable steps' & 'sustained effort'
- Criminal sanctions for non-cooperation: Section 35 action
- UKBA amended instructions for documenting removals and the implementation of Section 35 of the Asylum & Immigration (treatment of claimants etc.) Act 2004 in non-compliant cases
- The relevant section of the Asylum & Immigration (Treatment of Claimants etc) Act 2004 (s.35)
- Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) guidance on prosecution for immigration offences including s35 action
- ILPA/BID guidance to legal representatives on best practice in the event that a client is alleged to have failed to cooperate with the documentation process or where identity or nationality is disputed
- Nationality, citizenship & statelessness
- Practical Information
- Country Information
- Resources