A high court case involving a young woman who claims she is being imprisoned by her father has faced delays because of Brexit, a judge said.
Amina al-Jeffery, 21, who grew up in Swansea and has dual British and Saudi Arabian nationality, has complained that her Saudi academic father locked her up in his flat in Jeddah because she had “kissed a guy”. Her father, Mohammed al-Jeffery, has disputed her allegations and said he was trying to protect her.
The court heard that a planned private face-to-face meeting between Amina al-Jeffery and her solicitor, Anne-Marie Hutchinson, in Jeddah, which might have allowed the matter to be resolved “once and for all”, could not take place because of the lawyer’s Irish passport and a Brexit backlog.
Hutchinson required two clear pages side by side to obtain a travel visa, and her passport did not have the required space. When she applied for a fresh passport, she was told there was a backlog because of Brexit, the court heard.
Adjourning the case until 13 February, Mr Justice Holman said: “There you have it. The reach of Brexit has even impacted on the progress in this case. Who would have foreseen it?
“She needed two pages side by side, an Irish passport, and there was a backlog because of Brexit. But these things happen and we have to accommodate them.”
In August, the judge said Mohammed al-Jeffery had to “permit and facilitate” his daughter’s return to England or Wales by 11 September but she has not returned. At a previous hearing the judge said he had heard that Jeffery’s relationship with her father was much improved and some of the restrictions placed upon her had been relaxed. She said she now had a mobile phone, a computer and her passports – though her British passport was said to have expired – and she was working as an intern.
She had repeatedly said she wanted the legal proceedings to come to an end as they were hampering the restoration of family relationships. Lawyers for her father said he had agreed that she could travel in and out of Saudi Arabia at any time, although, as a formality, he would require her to ask permission which would always be given.
The judge said he remained concerned about the true scope of Jeffery’s freedoms and had not found it easy to decide whether to bring an end to the proceedings, hence the need for the face-to-face meeting.
