The Home Office has published a new 285 page report of a UK fact finding mission to Eritrea from February 2016 and updated its country policy documents on illegal exit from Eritrea and military service. From a quick glance, it looks like there is little change in the Home Office...
Welcome to the March 2016 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. In this (rather belated) episode I cover several EU law issues that are still relevant even after the Brexit vote then move on to cover some of the more important cases featuring on the blog in March...
The new Asylum Policy Instruction on Sexual Orientation Issues in the Asylum Claim, published last Wednesday, marks an unwelcome retrograde step for the Home Office, which still continues to apply the ‘voluntary discretion test’ to gay asylum claims, even though this has been held to be unlawful, as a matter...
Certification of Albanian asylum claims as clearly unfounded were in this case overturned by the Court of Appeal. Much turns on the individual circumstances of the case. An important point of law is on the threshold for certifying an asylum claim as “totally without merit” is as follows: 75. The correct...
The Competent Authority, the Home Office body which deals with human trafficking claims, did not, in refusing to investigate a claim, breach the procedural obligations of Article 4 ECHR, the Court of Appeal ruled. The Respondent claimed to have been trafficked into Russia from Vietnam where he worked in slave...
This family life case highlights the important point that the ‘7-year rule‘ – that young people under 18 must have lived in the UK for at least 7 years – must be satisfied at the date of application. It is not sufficient that the rule, in Immigration Rules paragraph 276ADE...
The Court of Appeal has given further guidance on the convoluted and badly drafted statutory presumptions on human rights in UK law. Trying to make sense of interlocking provisions in the UK Borders Act 2007, the Immigration Rules as amended (and amended and amended) and the Immigration Act 2014, the...
The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner is making substantial changes to its CPD scheme with immediate effect. You can read about the changes on the OISC website. To help those affected, Free Movement is running a special offer of a 50% discount for the first year of Free Movement...
Interesting but unsuccessful judicial review of the refusal to grant British citizenship to a former Serbian police officer on good character grounds. The good character refusal was based on his activities as described at paragraph 5 of the judgment: The Claimant was born on the 8th of August 1981 in...
In a decision of 27 May 2016, the Inner House of the Court of Session held that excluding the spouses of refugees from the so-called ‘domestic violence concession’ (DVC) in Section DVILR of the Immigration Rules discriminates against such spouses in violation of Article 14 of the European Convention of...
In the first successful challenge to prosecutions under s.35 of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants etc.) Act 2004, the Administrative Court in R (on the application of JM (Zimbabwe)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] EWHC 1773 (Admin) held that the Home Office may not...
Fees for judicial review applications hare risen yet again from today, Monday 25 July 2016. A new fees order was quietly laid last Friday: The Civil Proceedings, First-tier Tribunal, Upper Tribunal and Employment Tribunals Fees (Amendment) Order 2016. The fees going up are for the permission stage and they rise...
Imagine being told that everything you thought you knew as truth was an absolute lie. Imagine starting a journey with your peer group and then unexpectedly being ripped away from the same path. Imagine feeling as if no one understands your pain, your frustration, your anger. Imagine feeling like as...
The latest from the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, David Bolt: The report found that the Home Office had maintained the quality of its initial response despite the significant increase in ‘lorry drops’. The report also found that: there was a risk that minors placed in the care...
Available to ILPA members only, interesting report of the tribunal initially refusing to expedite a refugee family reunion appeal but agreeing to do so after a pre action letter was sent. Made a huge difference to the listing time. Source: Note on expediting cases in the First-tier Tribunal by Ben...
Brexit question and answer session Last Friday evening Steve Peers, Professor of European Law at the a university of Essex, Samia Badani of New Europeans and Matthew Evans of the AIRE Centre participated in a live question and answer session organised by Migrant Rights Network on the impact of Brexit...
UPDATE: A Home Office source says that the update is a mistake, incredibly. Form AN for applying to naturalise as a British citizen has just been updated to state that a permanent residence certificate or card is NOT mandatory for EEA nationals and their family members. It now says: Please Note:...
If you attempt to murder someone with a gun, and after release from prison for attempted murder (a sentence of over four years), are caught again with a loaded gun and imprisoned, do not be surprised that only the most exceptional circumstances will save you from deportation. This was all...
The official headnote: (i) The effect of the amendment of the regime in paragraph 41/SD of Appendix A to the Immigration Rules via HC628, dated 06 September 2013, is that any application for entry clearance or leave made before 01 October 2013 is to be decided in accordance with the...
The Immigration Act 2016 was signed by Her Majesty the Queen on 12 May 2016. Some sections of the Act came into effect immediately but most sections were dependent on being brought into force by commencement orders at the discretion of the Minister. We have seen one commencement order so...
Guidance added on ‘Arrest and restraint’, ‘Enforcement interviews’, ‘Identifying people at risk’, ‘Illegal working operations’ and updated guidance on ‘Search and seizure’. The changes reflect new powers under the Immigration Act 2016. I can’t help thinking the Home Office might have other demands on its time now apart from this...
On 1 July 2016 the Government launched a new National Transfer Scheme for refugee children. It enables one local authority to request transfer of an asylum seeking child to another local authority. The rationale is said to be: to encourage all local authorities to volunteer to support unaccompanied asylum-seeking children...
Conveniently, David Davis MP, our new Minister for Brexit, made a detailed speech and wrote a detailed article on the subject of free movement and negotiations with the EU. From these we can see quite quickly that he does not like free movement. Of people, anyway. Towards the UK, anyway....
Article 8 is to be assessed as at the date of decision in entry clearance cases, the Court of Appeal has found: Accordingly, I would reject the date of decision argument. The decision under appeal was, as regards article 8 as much as the policy issue, the ECO’s decision of...
Another case here that serves as a warning against attempting to arrive on a visitor visa to marry an EU national while not telling the Immigration Officer that this is in fact your reason for entering the UK. Despite “some 500 pages” of evidence substantiating the genuineness of the relationship...
The Home Office has published two important new policies on asylum seeking children. The first is a rewritten version of the main Asylum Policy Instruction on Processing children’s asylum claims. The second is an entirely new 40 page policy instruction on Tracing family members of unaccompanied asylum seeking children.
...Two cases regarding evidence of torture, decided on different grounds. The uniting feature is some guidance regarding Rule 35 reports of torture by doctors. Where a Rule 35 report of torture is nothing but a restatement of the Appellant’s account, that will not constitute independent evidence – this is in...
On 24 June 2016 the right to live in the United Kingdom for over 3 million people of its people was suddenly cast into doubt. If generous provision is not made for them we are looking at the biggest mass expulsion of population since 1290, when Edward I infamously ordered...
Paragraph 1: The situation in the present case raises again the question of whether it is appropriate to stay an application for judicial review when the defendant public authority has agreed to reconsider the decision in point, from scratch, with a fresh and open mind. The answer is that it...
Version 2.0 of the Home Office country information and guidance on Albanian blood feud asylum claims. It isn’t immediately clear to me what has changed. If you spot anything important do leave a comment.. Source: Albania: country information and guidance – Publications – GOV.UK
...Details of free fast track service from the Home Office for obtaining your personal records. Only applies to certain computerised records but it is free rather than £10 and only takes 20 days rather than 40 days. Basically it is a faster version of the subject access request method, which...
A recent Freedom of Information request reveals the number of times the Home Secretary has deprived British citizens of their citizenship over the last ten years as well as the breakdown of reasons. The raw numbers were as follows: Year Total 2006 > 5 2007 0 2008 0 2009 >...
I am currently commissioning some development work on the Free Movement website and it would be extremely useful if you could spare two minutes to answer the reader survey, which includes an opportunity to make suggestions about new features or changes you would like to see. I am very grateful...
