Immigration judge wrote for pro-open borders website

Telegraph

26-02-2025

An immigration judge behind a string of controversial rulings has written dozens of articles for a pro-open borders website.
Judge Sarah Pinder, whose decisions at tribunals have sparked a backlash in recent weeks, previously wrote for Free Movement, an online publication, and described detention centres as 'truly abhorrent'.
The site was founded by Colin Yeo, a barrister specialising in asylum cases, who has been critical of government efforts to curb illegal immigration.
Judge Pinder has made controversial rulings including allowing a Zimbabwean paedophile to stay in Britain because he would face 'hostility' back in his home country.
She was also one of two judges to declare that a Sudanese asylum seeker was a child despite the Home Office saying he was at least 23 with a receding hairline.
Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, said: 'Judges are trusted to park their political beliefs at the door. But when a judge's open borders political views seamlessly overlap with their expansionist judicial decisions, it's hard to escape the conclusion that they have been compromised.
'The framers of the ECHR [European Convention on Human Rights] could hardly have anticipated the breadth with which it has since been interpreted by some judges. It destroys public confidence in our immigration and criminal justice systems.'
Richard Tice, the deputy leader of Reform UK, said Judge Pinder 'should resign or be fired', adding: 'Sarah Pinder is clearly not fit to be an immigration judge.
'She simply does not agree with the concept of detention, deterrence and strong borders. The vast majority of British people do not want these people to put our safety at risk. She should resign or be fired.'
The articles date from 2011 to 2022, with the last piece published three years after Judge Pinder's appointment to the first-tier tribunal as a part-time immigration judge in 2019.
She was later appointed to the upper tribunal, which reviews first-tier decisions, in 2024. Before her career as a full-time judge, she was an immigration barrister at Goldsmith Chambers.
Judge Pinder appears to have recently deleted her social media profiles, with her LinkedIn and X accounts closed within the past month.
Her more recent articles for Free Movement looked at concessions for Afghan citizens on study and work routes in the UK and the process of reopening a finalised immigration appeal.
In 2011, she described government detention centres as 'truly abhorrent' following the deaths of three detainees.
She also criticised the Metropolitan Police and Sir Mark Rowley, now the force's commissioner, over an operation targeting foreign offenders in 2013, describing the social and cultural ramifications as 'incredibly worrying'.
Greg Smith, the Tory MP for Mid Buckinghamshire, said: 'The public expect our judiciary to be independent, not peddling their own agenda. There is no excuse for judicial activism, and any identified activism like this must be stamped out.'
It comes after a string of immigration rulings exposed by The Telegraph where migrants or convicted foreign criminals have secured the right to remain in the UK or avoided deportation in controversial circumstances.
Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, has criticised a decision by a different judge to allow a Palestinian family to live in the UK after they applied through a scheme for Ukrainian refugees.
Judge Pinder's decision to block the deportation of a convicted Zimbabwean paedophile on the basis he was likely to face 'substantial hostility' in his home country was criticised by Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary.
She previously ruled that a Jamaican drug dealer should be spared deportation after being told he had a transgender child.
Together with Judge Hugo Norton-Taylor, she also quashed a council's verdict that a Sudanese migrant was an adult, rather than 16 years old as he had claimed.
Mr Yeo, the founder of Free Movement, recently warned that Labour's new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill 'won't work' if it is intended to stop or even cut down on small boat crossings.
In a piece for the website, he wrote: 'Prosecuting people smugglers who never set foot on British soil is impossible, and more would spring up to meet demand anyway.
'Even if people are sent to prison, it seems highly unlikely that would deter anyone else from trying the same thing in future. It's punishment without deterrence or rehabilitation.
'If its purpose is political, to show that the Government is doing something, that won't work either. Passing new laws makes it sound like you're doing something but of itself has no real world impact. It increases expectations while doing nothing to sate them.'
A spokesman for the judiciary said: 'Judicial independence and impartiality are fundamental to the rule of law.
'Upon taking office, judges take the judicial oath where they swear to act 'without fear or favour, affection or ill will'.
'In each case, judges make decisions based on the evidence and arguments presented to them and apply the law as it stands.'