European Union citizens have taken the United Kingdom to court over its government denying those citizens the right to access data the Home Office maintains concerning individual immigration cases on Tuesday, according to The Guardian.
The EU citizens' representatives claimed a clause in the Data Protection Act 2018 unlawfully excludes them from rights which would otherwise give them access to private data maintained by third parties in a high court judicial review.
After Brexit occurs, EU citizens in the UK need to apply for a category called settled status so they could be affected by the new data laws.
The current law says an EU citizen whose settled status is rejected will not have a chance to establish whether or not that decision was based on incorrect or incomplete information maintained by the Home Ofice.
The legal firm of Leigh Day is representing the3million activist group and the Open Rights Group who brought the case against the British government.
Lawyers said the exemption extends to 3.6 million EU citizens living in the United Kingdom who will have to apply for new immigration status after Brexit when Great Britain officially leaves the EU scheduled for later this year.
London lawyers said the Home Office exemption is compatible with the EU data regulations and charter rights.
Solicitor Rosa Curling of Leigh Day argued the policy was actually discriminatory and breached EU law.
“The discriminatory, two-tier data protection regime created by our government is unlawful and we hope the court will agree it must be reconsidered on an urgent basis," Curling said.
“Individuals must have access to their personal data so they know what information is held about them by the Home Office and others, how this information is being processed and shared and to allow them to correct any errors made. Without access to the data, their right to rectify is meaningless.”
The activists say any mistakes made by the Home Office will go unchecked and could eventually affect an individual's immigration status.
They said that decision could be "based on incorrect or incomplete information and it could even lead to wrongful deportations”.
“This is of particular concern given that the chief inspector of borders and immigration has acknowledged the Home Office has a 10% error rate in immigration status checks,” they said.
“Data protection rights have proven vital to avoid miscarriages of justice in the immigration context [and] that importance will only increase as the immigration system becomes more dependent on automated analysis and profiling of data,” lawyers said in a submission to the high court.
-WN.com, Maureen Foody
Photo:
AP / Tim Ireland
