Ben Nelson

I am a Caseworker in the Public Law team at Duncan Lewis, based in the City of London office. I assist in a variety of public law matters as well as being accredited to take on various immigration matters under legal aid.

I first joined Duncan Lewis from September 2021 until October 2022. During this time, I assisted on a variety of Judicial Review matters. This includes the case of Yilmaz and Anor v SSHD [2022] EWCA Civ 300, a case which concerned the lawfulness of the certification of two individual's deportation appeals under s94B of the 2002 Act, authorising them to only pursue their appeal remotely. I also assisted with a number of urgent removal claims, in the context of charter flights to both the Iraqi-Kurdish Region and Jamaica.

I also assisted with clients who were detained on the first charter flight to Rwanda, following the Secretary of State's implementation of her new Safe Third Country Regime.

I rejoined Duncan Lewis in March 2023, Since then, I have assisted in two major public law challenges involving (1) the plight of asylum seekers who have been stuck on Diego Garcia (the largest island of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT)) and (2) a cohort of Asylum Seekers who had their asylum claims indefinitely paused in order to keep them eligible for removal to Rwanda under the terms of the Migrant and Economic Development Partnership.

With regards to (1), I have assisted in a number of successful judicial review challenges to (i) the lack of provision of Legal Aid on the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), (ii) the applicability of the Children Act to BIOT, (iii) the lawfulness of the process for determining protection claims on BIOT and (iv) the question of whether our clients should be granted "bail" to walk around certain areas of the island as part of their ongoing unlawful detention proceedings. A decision on these substantive proceedings are awaited by the BIOT Supreme Court.

We also have an ongoing claim in the High Court concerning the efforts to relocate our client with a positive protection decision to a safe third country. Following this, the UK Government have agreed to admit all the BIOT Migrants to the UK. The case has been covered in the press, including BBC News, Channel 4 News and the Guardian.

With Regards to (2), following a legal challenge from our lead client "AMX" we were successful in getting a concession from the Home Secretary involving over 6000 people being admitted to the asylum system. This case was covered in the Guardian, in an article within which I was quoted.

I am accredited as a Senior Caseworker under the Law Society's Immigration and Asylum Accreditation Scheme. I currently work under the direct supervision of Solicitor Jamie Bell and Director Toufique Hossain.

• BA Law - University of Cambridge

• Duncan Lewis Solicitors (March 2023 - Present)
• Garden Court Chambers - Public Access Caseworker (October 2022 - February 2023)
• Duncan Lewis Solicitors - Caseworker (Public Law - Toufique Hossain) (September 2021 - October 2022)

Court of Appeal

• Yilmaz and Anor v SSHD - 2022 EWCA Civ 300 - Challenge to Out of Country Appeals Following S94B Certification (assisted with)


• Commissioner of the British Indian Ocean Territory v R(VT) and Ors [2024] BIOT CA Civ 3 - https://www.biot.gov.io/wp-content/uploads/FINAL-2024-BIOT-CA-Civ-3-JUDGMENT-FOR-HAND-DOWN-Rev-2.pdf - https://www.biot.gov.io/wp-content/uploads/FINAL-2024-BIOT-CA-Civ-3-JUDGMENT-FOR-HAND-DOWN-Rev-2.pdf


• Commissioner of the British Indian Ocean Territory v R(VT) and Ors [2024] BIOT CA Civ 1 - https://www.biot.gov.io/wp-content/uploads/2024-BIOT-CA-Civ-1-17-May-24-final-judgment-for-hand-down.pdf



High Court

• R(VT and CT) v Commissioner of BIOT (BIOT SC No.3 and 4 of 2023)
• R(CT and Ors) v Commissioner of BIOT (BIOT SC No.18 and 20 of 2024)