Alasdair Mackenzie

Alasdair Mackenzie specialises in immigration and asylum and practises generally in public law. Alasdair appears frequently before the Immigration and Asylum Chamber of the Upper Tribunal and First-Tier Tribunal in all areas of immigration law, including asylum, human rights, family, EEA, student, points-based system, bail and deportation cases. He is regularly instructed in appeals against First-Tier Tribunal decisions, as well as appeals to the Court of Appeal and judicial reviews.

Alasdair has been counsel in numerous completed or proposed Country Guidance cases in the Tribunal, including one of the leading cases on the risks facing asylum applicants from Sri Lanka, LP. He also appeared as junior counsel for three of the appellants in EM Zimbabwe, the most recent Country Guidance case on Zimbabwe, and for two of the appellants in RS Zimbabwe, on the lawfulness of removing people with HIV/AIDS to Zimbabwe. He represented the appellant in the leading case on the risk of re-prosecution in China to those convicted of offences in the UK, JC China.

Alasdair has developed a particular interest in the treatment of mentally disordered people in the immigration system. His numerous cases in the latter area include Y & Z (Sri Lanka) (CA), which is believed to be the first reported case in which applicants have succeeded in contesting removal under Article 3 of the ECHR on grounds of a risk of suicide. He also works in mental health law and appears before mental health tribunals.

Alasdair also acts in judicial reviews of the National Asylum Support Service and regularly appears before the First Tier Tribunal (Asylum Support). Notable cases include a challenge to the Home Secretary's power to provide clothing to those on asylum support (AW Kenya), as well as a successful challenge to the failure of the Home Office to provide travel expenses to those signing on at immigration reporting centres.

He also undertakes claims for judicial review in immigration detention cases, including claims for damages for unlawful detention.

Alasdair appears in cases involving national security before the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, including SS (Libya), and in control order proceedings in the High Court.

Before joining Doughty Street from pupillage in 2005, Alasdair spent many years as a campaigner and advice worker on behalf of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK. He was among the founders of the charity Asylum Aid, of which he was Co-ordinator from 1990 to 2002. He spent some years as an executive committee member of the Immigration Law Practitioners' Association, of which he remains an active member, and is a former Chair of the Asylum Rights Campaign and of the Refugee Legal Group. He has acted as an expert consultant to the Immigration Services Commissioner, the regulator of immigration advisers. Alasdair has written or contributed to a number of significant reports and publications on asylum and immigration issues.

Alasdair is recommended by Chambers and Partners where he is described as 'an excellent communicator both in and outside of court'. He is also ranked in the Legal 500 as junior counsel in immigration.

He has contributed chapters on asylum and human rights claims to the forthcoming Legal Action Group book on Foreign National Prisoners. He is a regular contributor to the Administrative Court Digest and has written for journals including the New Law Journal, the Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law and the European Human Rights Law Review. He is a member of ILPA, ALBA, Liberty and Justice.

Main cases include

Immigration/asylum

• SS (Libya) v SSHD [2011] EWCA Civ 1547 (approach to exclusion from refugee status on 'terrorism' grounds; fairness before Special Immigration Appeals Commission) (junior counsel) (report)
  
  
• SSHD v AS (Somalia) and others [2011] EWCA Civ 1319, Times, January 2, 2012, [2011] All ER (D) 86 (Nov), (2011) 108 (46) LSG 20 (appeal rights for those within the 'legacy' of previously unresolved asylum claims) (report)
  
  
• PR, SS & TC v SSHD [2011] EWCA Civ 988, [2011] WLR (D) 276, [2011] All ER (D) 67 (Aug), [2011] CP Rep 47 ('second-tier appeals test' for appeals to Court of Appeal) (junior counsel for first applicant) (report)
  
  
• Abiyat and others (Rights of appeal) Iran [2011] UKUT 00314 (IAC) (rights of appeal under s.83 NIAA 2002; rights of appeal to UT where FTT declines jurisdiction) (report)
  
  
• MP (Sri Lanka) v SSHD [2011] EWCA Civ 362, [2011] All ER (D) 47 (Apr) (Tribunal's flawed approach to country guidance on Sri Lanka) (report)
  
  
• EM (Returnees) Zimbabwe CG [2011] UKUT 98 (IAC) (current leading Country Guidance on Zimbabwe; junior counsel for three of the appellants) (report)
  
  
• RS (Zimbabwe - AIDS) Zimbabwe CG [2010] UKUT 363 (IAC) (discriminatory access to treatment for people with HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe, junior counsel for two of the appellants) (report)
  
  
• R (Teluwo) v SSHD [2009] EWHC 2762 (Admin), [2009] All ER (D) 135 (Nov) (mistakes by Home Office inadvertently misleading judge, causing conspicuous unfairness and calling for remedy)
  
  
• VH (Malawi) v SSHD [2009] EWCA Civ 645, [2009] All ER (D) 38 (Jul) (status of statement of reasons in remitted hearing; approach to evidence given in different proceedings) (report)
  
  
• SSHD v Omar [2009] EWCA Civ 383, [2009] 1 WLR 2265, [2009] INLR 641 (principles relevant to delay by Home Secretary in pursuing appeal) (report)
  
  
• Y & Z (Sri Lanka) v SSHD [2009] EWCA Civ 362, [2009] HRLR 22, Times, May 5, 2009, (proper approach to expert psychiatric evidence and risk of suicide) (report)
  
  
• RA (Sri Lanka) v SSHD [2008] EWCA Civ 1210, [2008] All ER (D) 51 (Nov), [2009] ImmAR 320 (Tribunal's approach to risk of suicide in light of N v UK) (report)
  
  
• AN & SS (Tamils - Colombo - risk?) Sri Lanka CG [2008] UKAIT 00063 (for the first appellant) (report)
  
  
• JC (Double jeopardy: Art 10 CL) China CG [2008] UKAIT 00036 (risk of re-prosecution in China for offences in UK) (report)
  
  
• LP (LTTE area - Tamils - Colombo - risk?) Sri Lanka CG [2007] UKAIT 00076 (the Tribunal's leading Country Guidance decision on Sri Lankan Tamils) (report)
  
  
• KP (Sri Lanka) v SSHD [2007] EWCA Civ 62, [2007] All ER (D) 91 (Jan) (defective treatment of medical evidence by Tribunal) (report)
  
  
• MI (Paragraph 298 (iii): "independent life") Pakistan [2007] UKAIT 00052 (report)
  

Asylum support

• R (AW Kenya) v SSHD [2006] EWHC 3147 (Admin), [2006] All ER (D) 392 (Nov), [2007] ACD 33 (scope of Home Secretary's power to provide clothing to failed asylum seekers)

Control orders

• AR v SSHD [2009] EWHC 1736 (Admin), [2009] All ER (D) 145 (Jul) (challenge to SSHD's refusal to modify control order) (report)

Crime

• R v Campbell [2006] UKPC 56, [2007] 3 LRC 606 (PC - Bahamas) (power of court to re-sentence on appeal in absence of offender) (report)

Languages

German (good working knowledge), French (working knowledge), Russian (basic)

Year of Call

2004

Education

BA (Oxon); PgDL; Bedingfield Scholar, Gray's Inn, 2003

Email Address

a.mackenzie@doughtystreet.co.uk

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Specialist Teams

Member :

• Community Care & Health
• Housing and Social Welfare
• Immigration
• Mental Health
• Prisoner's Rights
• Public and Administrative Law