Blackened
White List

These are early moments.  Early, that is, after the momentous asylum ruling in the High Court on Thursday 24 February, by Mr Justice Wilson. He overruled Beverley Hughes' action, in July 2003, in placing Bangladesh on the "White List", whither asylum-seekers can be summarily returned, without any effective appeal.  The applicant loses any right of appeal while still in the UK: the woefully inadequate administrative decisions of the Home Office must stand, without challenge, until the applicant has left the UK.  Which is tantamount to blocking the appeal.  It is pure Kafka.

Mr Justice Wilson has ruled that Beverley Hughes acted illegally, in declaring Bangladesh to be a safe haven.  He said, courageously -

"It is all too clear that persecution and human rights abuse are not isolated problems at the margins of life in Bangladesh, which is officially ranked as "worst for corruption" on the relevant international index".

This is yet another setback for the bleak authoritarianism of this illiberal Government.  At local level, I have heard the most harrowing reports from Bangladesh of the repeated violence of local politics, in particular violence against Awami League activists, whose Party lost power to the Bangladesh National Party in 2002.  And yet the Home Office has blandly continued to despatch hapless victims back to Bangladesh, to confront their tormentors.

• The Government will appeal,
  but will - I predict - lose the appeal.

NB  Apart from the EU States, the list is now as follows -

Albania - Bangladesh - Bolivia - Brazil - Bulgaria - Ecuador - Jamaica - Macedonia - Moldova - Romania - Serbia & Montenegro - Slovenia - South Africa - Sri Lanka - Ukraine.