In The Press

Solicitor Ann Evans comments on Home Secretary Priti Patel’s continued use of the term ‘activist lawyers’ to describe those in the legal profession who are preventing the removal of asylum seekers. Ann recently represented an asylum seeker at the High Court, where the decision was made to prevent a chartered flight taking 20 asylum seekers to Spain. "We have evidence to suggest that Syrian asylum seekers recently returned to Spain by the government found themselves homeless, destitute and without access to help," Ann said, "and so the question arose whether returning them to Spain was lawful. I think the term 'activist lawyer' is used a lot now, but we were just doing our job. The suggestion that we're somehow politically motivated is not the case at all. Many of our clients have been through a lot of trauma and they're often vulnerable and can't speak English. It's our job to put their case forward where a decision is made by the government that affects them - it's their right to have their case heard before an independent judiciary."