Free Movement Weekly Immigration Newsletter #46

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter!

Manston is back in the news after the Home Secretary withdrew her decision of September 2024 not to hold a statutory inquiry into what happened in 2022 when the Home Office “completely lost grip” on the centre. A judicial review that was due to be heard last week has now been adjourned until January 2025 pending the Home Secretary making a new decision by 4 December 2024. This article with the accounts of some of those who were there is a must read, it also contains a reminder that there were children as young as six months old caught up in this. 

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that Gavin Williamson MP is not a Guardian reader. Weeks after the minister for borders, security and asylum told the paper that more hotels would be needed as a short-term solution he asked an urgent question in Parliament on the issue. Everyone knows that this is a situation caused by the previous government so I am not sure how helpful it is to them to keep bringing it up.

Something that is entirely within the remit of the current government to take immediate action on is the matter of homelessness of newly recognised refugees. As the weather gets worse this generates more media attention and last week saw articles in The Standard as part of their Winter Appeal and Liverpool Echo who have comprehensively covered this issue for some time now. Baroness Lister’s private members bill on extending the move on period will have its second reading on 13 December 2024.

For a bit of a change this week, here’s a story about a late application to presumably whatever Sweden’s version of the EUSS is leading to rejection for a British man.

On Free Movement, I wrote up the latest trafficking statistics. Looking at the extraordinarily low recognition rates (positive conclusive grounds decisions made by the immigration enforcement competent authority were 11%) and successful reconsiderations of negative decisions running at over 70%, it is clear that the Home Office is storing up trouble for itself with poor decision making. 

There were a couple of useful reports out last week, including the latest HMIP report on an unannounced inspection of Brook House earlier this year. The trend of recommendations in relation to Brook House going unaddressed is continuing, so it is no surprise that the inspection concluded that the centre has become less safe in the past two years. NACCOM has published their annual data review which gives a lot more detail about the huge increase in homelessness among newly recognised refugees, a direct result of government policy and completely avoidable. 

The Court of Appeal has given further guidance on assessing the seriousness of offences in deportation cases and Nick Nason has written that up for us, including a useful summary of the history of this issue. In another deportation case, the Upper Tribunal has said that a person who was in prison at Brexit date was not exercising treaty rights which meant that the greater protections against deportation available under the EEA Regulations were not applicable to him. 

For everything else on Free Movement and elsewhere in the past week, read on.

Cheers, Sonia

What we’re reading

 A radical new approach is needed to immigration detention – Colin’s Substack, 22 November

A realistic agenda for change in the asylum and immigration system – Colin’s Substack, 22 November

Indefinite Leave to Remain: Healthcare Workers Volume 757 – Hansard, 18 November

Palestinian Refugees and the Future of Asylum – EJIL: Talk!, 19 November

From backwater to battleground: The political importance of joined-up immigration and skills policy in the UK – 25 November, Social Market Foundation

Spain to grant residency, work permits to hundreds of thousands of migrants in the country illegally – AP News, 20 November

Non-fitted devices in the UK Home Office’s surveillance arsenal: Investigating the technology behind GPS fingerprint scanners – Privacy International, 20 November

Migrant communities: pathway to citizenship – Citizens UK, 21 November

Do refugees have a duty to be grateful? – The Conversation, 11 November

Expelled the same day: Ireland hardens illegal immigration response – BBC News, 24 November

Asylum for Afghan women might not be so straightforward – Politico, 24 November

How Domestic Courts Are Using International Refugee Law and Human Rights Law in the Context of Climate Change and Disasters – EJIL: Talk!, 22 November