The system used to speed up the processing of claims over the last decade is deemed "structurally unfair".
14:06, UK,Friday 12 June 2015
The Government's fast-track appeal system for processing asylum applications has been declared unlawful by the High Court.
A judge ruled the system, which has been used to speed up the processing of asylum-seeker claims for the last 10 years, is "structurally unfair".
Mr Justice Nicol, sitting in London, said the system must be quashed but put a stay on his order taking effect to give the Lord Chancellor and Home Secretary time to appeal his decision to the Court of Appeal.
The ruling is a groundbreaking victory for the charity Detention Action, which campaigns on behalf of individuals held in immigration detention.
"Many asylum seekers on the detained fast track are confused and distressed," the group said.
"Held in conditions equivalent to a high-security prison, they struggle to understand a complex procedure in an unfamiliar and hostile environment in which clear information is not always easily available.
"Such circumstances pose considerable obstacles to asylum seekers' ability to engage effectively with the asylum process.
"Time is always against the asylum seeker on the detained fast track."
Mr Justice Nicol said in his ruling: "What seems to me to make the fast track rules structurally unfair is the serious procedural disadvantage which comes from the abbreviated timetable and curtailed case management powers, together with the imposition of this disadvantage on the (asylum seeker)..."
It comes after a previous ruling, last December, deemed part of the system unlawful.
The Court of Appeal ruling then means the Home Office now has to release asylum seekers detained in the fast-track system who have appeals pending and show no risk of absconding.
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