Medical Treatment: the Cure for the Article 3 Threshold

Ever since the House of Lords decision in N(Uganda) v SSHD [2005] UKHL 31, migrants who are reliant on medical treatment in the UK have faced an almost insurmountable obstacle in showing their case fell into the category of the most exceptional of circumstances.

The test at Paragraph 94 of the N judgement was articulated as being that it: ‘must be shown that the applicant’s medical condition has reached such a critical state, that there are compelling humanitarian grounds for not removing him or her to a place which lacks the medical and social services which he or she would need to prevent acute suffering.’ The test that has to be met is that the medical condition has reached such a critical stage, they are so ill, that it would be inhumane to deprive the applicant of the treatment they are receiving.