Free Movement Weekly Immigration Newsletter #57

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter!

With no sign of any movement from the government on the ban on citizenship for those who have arrived in the UK without permission, despite further pressure, it looks like it will end up being lawyers who hopefully get this policy overturned. We have also started to hear directly from those who have been affected by this insidious change. The Home Office position continues to be vague about “mitigating circumstances” allowing applications to be granted, with no acknowledgement of the fact that without a clear indication of whether an application will be successful or not, people will simply not be prepared to risk the extortionate application fee.

Further, the “mitigating circumstances” mentioned in the Home Office’s response to that article is very different to the “exceptional, compelling and mitigating” circumstances referred to by a Home Office minister in the House of Lords. If the minister misspoke then a correction should be made.

There were reports last week that we may finally see some movement from the UK government on a youth mobility scheme for EU workers.  It was reported that quotas will apply, which is to be expected as that is also the case for the other countries that participate in the scheme. It will be interesting to see whether demand reaches the applicable quota as, for example, demand from Australia has been only a fraction of the number of places actually available.

On Free Movement, for those of you currently contemplating yet another grey day in the UK and dreaming of escape, I highly recommend reading Alex Piletska’s very well-researched and entertaining piece on the immigration implications of housesitting. She is of course looking at the position for those who come to the UK, but the issues raised seem likely to apply to housesitting elsewhere in the world.

On the training front, we have updated our online members’ course on immigration bail (intermediate level). Tomorrow morning our webinar on immigration options for Ukrainian nationals and their family members is taking place, presented by solicitors Luke Piper and Dmitri Macmillen, both of whom have worked extensively on these cases. 

There were a few case write ups on the blog last week, including this costs decision written up by James Packer, highlighting the difficulties faced by litigants in person trying to navigate complex procedural rules. I updated our explainer on the “no recourse to public funds” restriction to take into account some recent changes. Also on that subject, I flagged up this report looking at the Home Office’s increasing practice of asking for more evidence in change of conditions applications, much of which seems to be a complete waste of everyone’s time and adding to the growing casework delays in this area.4

Finally, a quick mention that the Stand Up! Speak Out! series of free, online training to resist the Hostile Environment in public services is back for 2025. As ever there is a really impressive line up covering legal aid, healthcare, housing, local authority care, use of interpreters and much much more.

For everything else on Free Movement and elsewhere, read on.

Cheers, Sonia

What we’re reading

Home Office is recruiting a Windrush Commissioner – Colin’s Substack, 18 February

Iranian asylum seeker lay dead for up to four months while wearing ankle tag – hyphen, 17 February

‘People are so polite’: the Ukrainian refugee bonding with the British over borscht and chips – The Guardian, 23 February

Bad Character, London Review of Books, 20 February

Illegal Migration Act appeal paused by NI court – BBC News, 20 February

‘Exploited’ migrant farm workers in UK paid for picks, not hours – The Observer, 22 February

Home Office contractor collected data on UK citizens while checking migrants’ finances – The Observer, 23 February

Special Forces blocked 2,000 credible asylum claims from Afghan commandos, MoD confirms – BBC News, 17 February

‘I don’t earn enough money for my family to be together, it’s heartbreaking’ – Liverpool Echo, 21 February

UK immigration policy is stuck in a race to the bottom – with human traffickers the only winners – Big Issue, 19 February

Top judge ‘deeply troubled’ by PMQs exchange on Gaza family’s right to live in UK – The Guardian, 18 February

Architects warn post-Brexit visa rules hindering recruitment – The Guardian, 18 February

Report publication: Appointment of the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration – Home Affairs Committee, 17 February

How Spain’s radically different approach to migration helped its economy soar – The Guardian, 18 February