Human rights legal challenges dismissed

A human trafficking victim whose application for accommodation as a homeless person was rejected by a Scottish local authority has had a legal challenge against the decision dismissed.

A judge in the Court of Session upheld the decision by Aberdeen City Council to refuse her application on the grounds that she was not entitled to reside in the UK as she was “not a job seeker” and accordingly not a “qualified person”, ruling that she would be a “burden on the State”.

Lord Boyd of Duncansby heard that the petitioner “GO,” a Polish national, arrived in Aberdeen along with her adult son in October 2014, having been trafficked into the country.  But the judge said the mental health problems she was suffering as a result would be better treated in Poland.

In another legal case, a prisoner claimed that his human rights had been breached because he had not been given a reasonable opportunity to rehabilitate himself.  A judge in the Court of Session however, refused the petition for judicial review after ruling that the Scottish Prison Service did provide the sex offender with opportunities to rehabilitate himself and that the inmate failed to engage with a programme aimed at treating offending behaviour.

 

Image credit 3D Judges Gavel by Chris Potter (2012) / StockMonkeys.com / CC BY 2.0