Judge of the upper Tribunal, Immigration and Asylum Chamber Appointment- Saad Meah

June 14, 2024
Saad Meah
  • He attended a local comprehensive state school in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

The king has appointed Saad Meah to be a salaried judge of the upper tribunal on the advice of the Lord Chancellor, the right Honourable Alex Chalk Kc MP and the senior president of the tribunals, the right honourable sir Keith Lindblom. 

The senior president of tribunal has assigned him to the immigration and Asylum Chamber with effect from 8 July 2024.

Al Haj Kazi Saad Meah was born at the Bethnal Green Hospital, London, and raised also in Bethnal Green by parents Abeda Khatun and the late Kazi Shahnoor Meah.

He attended a local comprehensive state school in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

His legal career and extensive involvement in the field of human rights commenced in February 1991, when he started working in the public pro-bono sector in the legal field.

This lead to part-time law studies at London Southbank University, and he subsequently achieved a Masters in Law with distinction, from the University of East London, specialising in International Human Rights.

Saad Meah successfully represented vulnerable appellants with their human rights appeals at the Immigration Courts until 2001, when he took up appointment as the Regional Director for the provision of entire legal services at the government’s Oakington Immigration Detention centre where he served until 2009, during which time he gained universal respect for his knowledge and mastery of a number of complicated strategic pilots introduced by the government, as well as an in-depth understanding of the ‘fast-track‘ processes operating throughout the government’s detention estate.

He was comprehensively involved in influencing and shaping governmental policy on immigration detention, legal practice and policy as a senior stakeholder representing the interests of vulnerable detainees being processed throughout the government’s ‘one-stop’ and ‘fast-track’ policies whilst held in immigration detention.

Saad Meah was first appointed as an Immigration Judge in 2006, and sat regularly at the Immigration Courts in Sheldon and Walsall In Birmingham. He moved to sitting at the main Immigration Court at Taylor House in London in September 2010, where he has continued to sit as a Judge until May 2024. He was also appointed as a Judge of the Social Entitlement Chamber in July 2018, where he has heard appeals from appellants appealing DWP decisions refusing welfare benefits.

Saad Meah has now been appointed as a Salaried Judge of the Upper Tribunal, and he is the first Judge of Sylheti Bengali origin to be appointed at this senior level to the Immigration & Asylum Chamber.