Entry Clearance Officer v BB & Ors

Facts

The respondents are members of an Afghan family seeking entry clearance to the United Kingdom to join their relative, the Sponsor, a recognised refugee who fled Afghanistan in 2015/2016 after being pressured to join the Taliban and suffering violence from relatives. The Sponsor was granted refugee status and later indefinite leave to remain, but suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, severe depression and anxiety. His parents and sisters, and later a niece and nephew, fled Afghanistan separately and travelled to Turkey, where they remain without regularised status. In May 2022 they applied for entry clearance under the Immigration Rules, Appendix Family Reunion (Sponsor with Protection), relying on Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, given effect domestically via Schedule 1 to the Human Rights Act 1998. The Entry Clearance Officer refused the applications in August 2023, finding no relevant family life. The First-tier Tribunal (Judge Bennett) dismissed the appeals in July 2024, holding that family life had not been re-established between the Sponsor and the respondents. The Upper Tribunal (Judge Bruce), in an error of law decision of February 2025, set that decision aside as irrational, and in a remade decision of August 2025 allowed the appeals, finding family life existed and refusal disproportionate. The Entry Clearance Officer appealed to the Court of Appeal against both Upper Tribunal decisions.