Benjamin Bundock

Significant cases:

•  R (BEL and others) v Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs [2025] EWHC 1970 (Admin).  Successful challenge to the Foreign Secretary’s refusal to provide consular assistance to a Palestinian family seeking to exit Gaza during the war, to take up entry clearance to the UK.  Led by Tim Owen KC, alongside Tim James-Matthews.

 •  R (VT and another, AAA and others) v Commissioner of the British Indian Ocean Territory and SSFCDO (BIOT/SC/No.1/2023, BIOT/SC/No.2/2023).  Public law challenge in the BIOT Supreme Court, to the BIOT Commissioner’s decisions to reject protection claims made by a group of Tamil asylum seekers stranded on Diego Garcia, challenging the novel procedure adopted on BIOT.  Led by Ben Jaffey KC, within a team representing eight claimants.

•  R (AAA and others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (UNHCR intervening) [2022] EWHC 3230 (Admin).  Challenge to the UK government’s policy of removing asylum seekers to Rwanda.  Acted for UNHCR as intervener in the Divisional Court, led by Angus McCullough KC and Laura Dubinsky KC, within a team of junior counsel.  Ben also acted in the applications for interim relief, regarding the first removals to Rwanda (see [2022] EWCA Civ 840).

•  R (T) v SSHD (Judicial review: damages claims) [2021] UKUT 320. Confirming the Upper Tribunal’s procedural powers and discretion in relation to residual damages claims in applications for Judicial Review.

•  JS (Uganda) v SSHD [2019] EWCA Civ 1670, [2020] 1 W.L.R. 43. Appeal regarding the nature and scope of the UK’s obligations to people recognised as refugees on the basis of their relationship with a recognised refugee, and the law governing decisions to cease such refugee status.  Led by Raza Husain KC alongside Eleanor Mitchell.

•  SSHD v Viscu [2019] EWCA Civ 1052, [2019] 1 W.L.R. 5376. Appeal on whether a Detention and Training Order imposed on a child amounted to ‘imprisonment’ for the purposes of the Citizens Directive and the Immigration (EEA) Regulations 2016.  Led by Allan Briddock.

•  AS (Afghanistan) v SSHD [2019] EWCA Civ 873, [2019] 1 W.L.R. 5345. Appeal clarifying the law on internal relocation under the Refugee Convention.  Led by Sonali Naik KC and Ronan Toal.

•  AS (Afghanistan) v SSHD [2019] EWCA Civ 208, [2019] 1 W.L.R. 3065. Complex preliminary dispute about the Upper Tribunal’s power to correct mistakes in their decisions, and the proper exercise of discretion in relation to such mistakes.  Led by Sonali Naik KC and Gemma Loughran.

•  AS (Safety of Kabul) Afghanistan CG [2018] UKUT 118 (IAC). Country Guidance on the safety and reasonableness of relocation to Kabul under the Refugee Convention. Led by Sonali Naik KC and Bryony Poynor.

•  Yussuf (meaning of “liable to deportation”) [2018] UKUT 117 (IAC). Upper Tribunal decision on the SSHD’s power to revoke Indefinite Leave to Remain held by people who cannot be deported because it would breach the Refugee Convention or ECHR.

Before coming to the Bar, Ben assisted solicitors in a leading civil liberties firm, working on inquests arising from deaths in prison and police custody, and public law and civil actions against the prison service and police.  Before that, Ben worked in the NGO sector and led a programme of work aiming to enforce and develop the legal obligations on UK-based extraction companies to account for their impact on people overseas and the environment.

Privacy notice