Case No. UKUT-00015-(IAC)

1. In the case management directions of Upper Tribunal Judge Bruce dated 13 September 2016 one finds the following useful synopsis of the framework of this appeal: “The first Appellant Mr Chin resists his deportation to Malaysia inter alia on the grounds that he is not a national of that country. He asserts that he is stateless. The second Appellant is party to these proceedings as she is the wife of the first Appellant who faces deportation as his family member”. In the various decisions and notices generated by the Secretary of State for the Home Department (“ the Secretary of State ”) Mr Chin’s date of birth is stated to be 12 April 1962 (now aged 54 years) and he is described as a “British Overseas Citizen” (“BOC”). Mr Chin is married to the second Appellant, Mrs Teng. 2. Both the underlying decision making process of the Secretary of State and the progress of these appeals have been regrettably sluggish. There are notices and decisions dating from November 2010. Quite how a period of six years has been permitted to elapse since then, without finality, is unclear. The gravest period of individual delay began on 25 November 2010, when the Secretary of State wrote to Mr Chin inviting his representations against deportation from the United Kingdom and 16 January 2014 when, by a further letter, Mr Chin was notified of a further decision that Section 32(5) of the UK Borders Act 2007 applies. This generated a right of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (“FtT”) which Mr Chin duly exercised.