Claims for Unlawful Detention and False Imprisonment in Immigration and Asylum Cases

The terms "unlawful detention" and "false imprisonment" are often used interchangeably. Unlawful detention is commonly used to determine, in the context of immigration cases, whether the Secretary of State has acted without valid legal authority to detain an individual. However, false imprisonment refers to a situation under common law, which gives rise to a civil claim for damages. It is a strict liability tort and no demonstrable loss is needed to establish this. For the purposes of this ...