Search Results for: Kakaei

Although now largely eclipsed by the Illegal Migration Act 2023, the Nationality and Borders Act 2022’s legacy will be its criminalisation of the act of seeking asylum in the UK. This article aims to give an overview of the changes to the law. Entry vs arrival By way of background,...

22nd February 2024
BY Larry Lock

There are a lot of immigration-related criminal offences. The main offences are mostly contained in the Immigration Act 1971 as (heavily and repeatedly) amended but are sometimes set out in other immigration statutes. Some of the offences are very rarely, if ever, prosecuted. In this unit, we break down the various immigration...

26th October 2023
BY Jasmine Quiller-Doust

On 1 February 2023 Mr Justice Cavanagh made a ruling, following a preparatory hearing on 14 and 15 December 2022, that asylum seekers can be prosecuted for arriving in the UK without valid entry clearance and for assisting unlawful immigration, contrary to sections 24(D1) and 25(1) of the Immigration Act...

6th March 2023
BY Aneurin Brewer

On 1 February 2023, the Court of Appeal heard an appeal against a preliminary ruling that asylum seekers can be prosecuted for arriving in the UK without a valid entry clearance. The case is R v. Mohamed and others. The appeal was brought on behalf of four Sudanese defendants who...

7th February 2023
BY David Suber

As we reported last week, a recent letter from government lawyers clarified the Home Office’s position that “[s]ince July 2022… migrants who cross the Channel in small boats who are either rescued or directed to land at designated locations by the authorities are no longer deemed to be illegal entrants,...

6th October 2022
BY Jed Pennington

On 25 August 2022, the Home Office announced plans to fast-track the removal of Albanian nationals “with no right to be in the UK” under plans agreed with the Albanian government (it was said) “to tackle the scourge of small boat crossings”. The fast-track removal scheme appeared to be explicitly...

29th September 2022
BY Jed Pennington

The Act includes two significant changes to enable prosecution of those who assist asylum seekers to enter the UK. One is an indirect change which, by reforming section 24 of the Immigration Act 1971, re-opens the possibility of “hand on the tiller” prosecutions under section 25. The other is a...

18th March 2022
BY CJ McKinney

Part 3 of the Act includes provisions relating to immigration offences and enforcement. Several of the changes make it almost impossible to claim asylum in the UK without first committing a criminal offence. It may surprise some that arriving in an unauthorised manner such as a small boat in order...

18th March 2022
BY CJ McKinney

The Court of Appeal has quashed the convictions of three asylum seekers jailed for between two and six years for assisting unlawful immigration after piloting small boats across the English Channel. The case is Bani v The Crown [2021] EWCA Crim 1958. The heavy lifting was done in the earlier...

22nd December 2021
BY CJ McKinney

In a previous briefing we saw that customary international law, four international conventions and international human rights law all impose a duty on states to rescue those in distress at sea and to set up and maintain search and rescue services. We also saw that the enforceability of international law...

11th October 2021
BY Colin Yeo

In the absence of safe and legal routes to sanctuary countries in which they can rebuild their lives, refugees often resort to travel by unsafe means. The issue of rescuing refugees at sea has risen in global prominence, with an estimated 40,000 refugees and other migrants dying between 2014 and...

5th October 2021
BY Colin Yeo

Note: this article refers to the position prior to the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, see here for the current position. On 13 May 2021, my client Fouad Kakaei was unanimously acquitted of assisting unlawful immigration at his retrial following a successful appeal against conviction, the reporting restriction for which...

17th May 2021
BY Aneurin Brewer

Fouad Kakaei is an Iranian man who helped steer small boats carrying asylum seekers across the English Channel on two separate occasions, in July and December 2019. He also attempted to cross on several other occasions. Following the July 2019 crossing, he did not claim asylum here in the UK...

14th May 2021
BY Colin Yeo

The principal immigration criminal offence is that of “illegal entry and similar offences” set out in the Immigration Act 1971 at section 24. Like soft drug possessions, these were frequently committed but rarely prosecuted. That is, until the Government resolved to “stop the boats” in 2021-2022 by introducing punitive measures to...

22nd October 2020
BY Jasmine Quiller-Doust
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