Free Movement Weekly Immigration Newsletter #35

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter!

Following last week’s disaster in the Channel in which six children and a pregnant woman were among the dozen who lost their lives, everyone should read this article by a Syrian refugee in the UK highlighting the problems with the government’s approach to these journeys. Crossings continued in the immediate aftermath of the deaths. People simply do not have viable alternatives and we see time and time again that those who do try to come to the UK using supposedly available routes are subject to arbitrary and cruel refusals.

The House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee has published a report bringing the recently laid Illegal Migration Act 2023 (Amendment) Regulations 2024 to the attention of the House, describing it as “lamentable that the Home Office put forward an Act of Parliament that it has simply not been able to implement”. The committee also rightly questions the amount of public money that “has been wasted on efforts to implement the Act to date”.

Questions were also asked about what the Home Office was doing to mitigate the risk of increased homelessness as a result of increased decision making. The response from the Home Office was mainly just an explanation of the move on process. On that point, Baroness Lister has introduced a private members’ bill which would extend the move on period to 56 days instead of the current 28 days which is obviously not enough time for people to start their new life.

In other news, the deadline to respond to the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration’s inspection of fee waivers has been extended to 15 September 2024. Also last week, the government announced that plans to use RAF Scampton as asylum accommodation have been dropped.

On Free Movement, today is the last day to take advantage of the early bird discount on the Mastering complex refugee family reunion cases webinar.

On the blog, the latest monthly podcast is out and we also published a post on making a no time limit application, designed to help those who need to carry out this additional step before applying for their eVisa. We covered an important update for those who sponsor skilled workers, relating to an error made in the March 2024 statement of changes to the immigration rules, relating to the going rates for some roles.

If you are not already aware of the Home Office’s ex gratia payment scheme then you should read our updated post on when and how to make a claim under that. Of course, getting money out of the Home Office is rarely going to be straightforward, and last week the Parliamentary and Health Ombudsman published a report on how compensation is being wrongfully withheld from people applying to the Windrush compensation scheme. 

For everything else on the blog and elsewhere, read on.

Cheers, Sonia

 What we’re reading

Legal Action magazine – Legal Action Group, September

Volume 43, Issue 2, June 2024 – Refugee Survey Quarterly

UK Home Office plans overhaul of Secure English Language Testing – The Pie, 2 September

Refugee Paralympic Team leaves Paris with historic medals and lasting legacy – UNHCR, 7 September

Indonesian fruit-pickers say seasonal work in UK left them drowning in debt – Al Jazeera, 6 September

Number of seasonal workers seeking help after being sacked by UK farms doubles in past year – The Guardian, 8 September

Seasonal workers on British farms being given ‘unhealthy and dangerous’ accommodation – ITV News, 5 September

01710-24 Full Fact v Daily Express – Independent Press Standards Organisation, 6 September

Firms fined thousands for employing illegal staff – BBC News, 3 September

Home Office Spends Over Half A Billion Pounds On Temporary Staff In Two Years – PoliticsHome, 5 September

Labour piles £15m into deportation deals for small boat migrants in 11 countries – Independent, 4 September

Labour’s ‘change of tone’ revives foreign students’ interest in UK universities – The Guardian, 7 September