High Court in Belfast dismissed allegations of a breach of rights safeguarded under the post-Brexit Windsor Framework

A woman from war-torn Sudan has lost a legal battle aimed at securing a safe route for her family to join her in the UK.

Shima Esmail claimed the Government unlawfully failed to establish a reunification scheme for relatives living on a bus as conflict and famine ravaged the African county.

But the High Court in Belfast dismissed allegations of a breach of rights safeguarded under the post-Brexit Windsor Framework.

Dismissing the challenge, Mr Justice Humphreys said: “There is therefore no diminution of rights in this particular case.”

Ms Esmail, who is now a UK citizen, issued judicial review proceedings after being denied leave outside the immigration rules (LOTR) for extended family members still in Sudan.

The court heard her relatives are currently using a bus as their home, suffering from serious food shortages and without access to healthcare.

The village where the family lives is under the control of rebel forces amid the ongoing civil war.

Thousands of people have been killed and injured, with millions of residents also displaced since the conflict broke out in 2023.

Senior counsel for Ms Esmail described the situation in Sudan as reflecting a “Hobbesian state of nature”.

The war has seen a surge in sexual violence, attacks on humanitarian workers and healthcare professionals.

With acute shortages of food, water and medicine, the British Embassy and Visa Application Centre in Khartoum have been closed indefinitely.

Legal action was taken against the Home Office and Foreign Office for failing to establish a family reunification scheme similar to the one set up for Ukrainian nationals fleeing war, and for deciding it was not possible to grant an LOTR.

It was claimed that Ms Email’s entitlements under the Good Friday Agreement, enshrined by Article 2 of the Windsor Framework had been breached.

Ruling on the challenge, Mr Justice Humphreys found no evidence that those rights were diminished because of Brexit.

“Equally, the political decision not to implement a Sudanese reunification scheme akin to that developed in relation to Ukraine cannot be said to have any connection to the UK’s exit from the EU,” he added.

Further claims that the authorities unlawfully fettered their discretion were also rejected.

“It will be a matter for the government of the day to determine the appropriate reaction to crises

and conflicts which occur throughout the world.

“Such responses may include the creation of bespoke routes to permit entry into the UK.

“This is by no means the only possible course of action to meet a given humanitarian crisis.”

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