32 SAADI v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT - JOINT PARTLY DISSENTING OPINION
OF JUDGES ROZAKIS, TULKENS, KOVLER, HAJIYEV, SPIELMANN AND HIRVELÄ
admission (see paragraphs 20-21 of the judgment), under the terms of which
he could spend the night in the hotel of his choice but had to return to the
airport the following morning. On 31 December 2000 the applicant reported
as required and was again granted temporary admission until the next day.
When he again reported to the airport as agreed he was granted temporary
admission for the third time until 10 a.m. the following day, 2 January 2001.
It was not until 2 January, after reporting as required, that he was detained
and transferred to the Oakington reception centre, where there is a prisonlike atmosphere. In any event, the theoretical debate as to whether a person
is unlawfully present within a country's territory until he or she has been
granted leave to enter is of no real relevance in this case, given that the
applicant was in fact given permission to enter for three days.
When considering the context, object and purpose of Article 5 of the
Convention, the judgment rightly stresses “the importance of Article 5 in
the Convention system”, which “enshrines a fundamental human right,
namely the protection of the individual against arbitrary interferences by the
State with his right to liberty” (see paragraph 63). However, the majority
deem it necessary to consider what is meant by “protection against
arbitrariness” in the present case, and take the view that “the principle that
detention should not be arbitrary must apply to detention under the first
limb of Article 5 § 1 (f) in the same manner as it applies to detention under
the second limb. Since States enjoy the right to control equally an alien's
entry into and residence in their country ..., it would be artificial to apply a
different proportionality test to cases of detention at the point of entry than
that which applies to deportation, extradition or expulsion of a person
already in the country” (see paragraph 73). Hence, the judgment does not
hesitate to treat completely without distinction all categories of
non-nationals in all situations – illegal immigrants, persons liable to be
deported and those who have committed offences – including them without
qualification under the general heading of immigration control, which falls
within the scope of States' unlimited sovereignty.
In the context of migration, according to the judgment, the only
requirement which the detention measure must satisfy to avoid being
branded as arbitrary is that it must have been carried out “in good faith”. It
must also “be closely connected to the purpose of preventing unauthorised
entry of the person to the country” (see paragraph 74). Are these
requirements met in the instant case?
With regard first of all to the question of good faith, the Court has no
hesitation in subscribing to the observations of the domestic courts, which
found that the detention regime in Oakington was designed to ensure the
speedy resolution “of some 13,000 of the approximately 84,000 asylum
applications made in the United Kingdom per year at that time. In order to
achieve this objective it was necessary to schedule up to 150 interviews a
day and even small delays might disrupt the entire programme. The