Failed asylum-seeking Indian couple win payout after suing UK home office for being kept separately in immigration detention
LONDON: An Indian couple who had their asylum claim in Britain rejected by the home office have won a payout after suing the department in the high court here for being kept in separate accommodation prior to deportation. The amount is to be determined by a county court.The married couple, both Indian nationals, took legal action last year claiming that being accommodated separately in male and female accommodation before their planned removal was an “unlawful interference with their right to family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights”.In the London high court on Tuesday, deputy judge Simon Tinkler ruled that their separation in immigration detention “was unlawful” under Article 8 and they were entitled to compensation.The couple also challenged the refusal of their asylum claim. On March 26, 2025 the wife, a Hindu in her 30s, claimed asylum in the UK on the basis that she and her husband feared persecution in India because of their interfaith marriage. Her husband, a Muslim, was a dependant on that claim.The woman left her family to move to Mumbai, where she met her Muslim husband. They then moved to Hyderabad and got married, without her family knowing. She came to the UK in 2022 on a study visa and her husband came as her dependant. Their leave to remain expired on May 11, 2024 and they became overstayers.In her asylum claim, the wife said she feared persecution in India from “our families, Indian law and religious societies… religious extremists would torture and kill us and local politicians will oppose us…and we will be shot or stabbed or burnt to death.”The home office interviewer asked her: “BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain has married a Hindu lady. Why can you not live peacefully like him?” She said she did not have the money to be like them.The home office refused her claim on Aug 7, 2025 and certified it as “clearly unfounded”, meaning they had no right of appeal. The couple were detained on Sept 11, 2025 pending removal to India, when they were housed separately. They were released on Oct 3, 2025 after launching the judicial review.Tinkler dismissed the challenge to the asylum refusal, noting the home office view was that whilst there was a risk in some states in India for some interfaith couples at some times, there was no blanket risk in all states and the couple had lived together in India before moving to the UK.
