The Law Society Gazette reports that Benny Thomas of Consilium Solicitors, an immigration lawyer who lied to court, has been struck off following a Hamid hearing and referral to the SRA. The original judgment is unavailable on BAILII but was reported at the time on Free Movement. Referral to the...
With the Children Act 1988, the language of “access” and “custody” was abandoned in family law, and with good reason. The language was suggestive of incarceration, it encouraged confrontation between parents and it was based on the idea of children as inanimate parcels or packages. In immigration law, though, that...
I just came across a new (to me, at any rate) Home Office policy document entitled European Economic Area (EEA) case law and appeals which sets out the Home Office interpretation of various key EU law cases including Steymann, Levin, Antonissen, Surinder Singh, Eind, O and S v Netherlands, McCarthy,...
Discretion in relation to costs is a wide one and awarding costs on an indemnity basis against an unsuccessful party is a departure from the norm. The substantive matter in the case of R (on the application of Kaienga) v Secretary of State for the Home Department IJR [2015] UKUT...
Upper Tribunal determination on “print and send” Tier 4 student applications: R (on the application of Wasif) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (rule 34 – “print and send”) IRJ [2015] UKUT 270 (IAC). “Print and send” applications were withdrawn in August 2014 so the case is of...
The Upper Tribunal has found that returns of asylum seekers to Malta under the Dublin Regulation are lawful. The case is R (on the application of Hagos) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Dublin returns – Malta) IJR [2015] UKUT 271 (IAC) 1) While the Maltese system for...
The Administrative Court last week (22.5.15) handed down judgment in the case of R (on the application of AB) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2015] EWHC 1490 (Admin), quashing a decision not to recognize AB as a victim of human trafficking for the purposes of the Council...
It is very widely believed that the Human Rights Act stops the UK from deporting foreign criminals whence they came. To a limited extent, there is some truth in this. Some appeals against deportation decisions do succeed on human rights grounds. Not many, though, and none succeed because of the...
The Home Office has introduced a new policy on reconsideration of old human rights claims that were refused before 6 April 2015 with no right of appeal: Requests for reconsiderations of human rights or protection based claims refused without right of appeal before 6 April 2015. The policy is important...
On 14 May 2015 Free Movement published an article containing a write up of the case of R (on the application of SN) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (striking out – principles) IJR [2015] UKUT 227 (IAC). The article included a hyperlink to a firm of solicitors...
The issue of when the Upper Tribunal might make a mandatory order requiring the Home Office to act in a specific way was considered in the case of R (on the application of Sultana) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (mandatory order – basic principles) IJR [2015] UKUT...
Having just finished drafting grounds for judicial review in a case involving a refusal of a Tier 4 study application on the grounds that the applicant was not a “genuine student” I was interested to see the new case of R (Mushtaq) v Entry Clearance Officer of Islamabad, Pakistan (ECO...
The legendary Tribunal Judge Rosalind Clayton retires with effect from 13 May 2015: Tribunal Judge Clayton (70) was called to the Bar (M) in 1988. She was appointed a part-time Immigration Adjudicator in 1996 and a full-time Immigration Adjudicator in 2000 (now known as Judge of the First Tier Tribunal...
In the case of R (on the application of SN) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (striking out – principles) IJR [2015] UKUT 227(IAC) the President of the Upper Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber not only strikes out the applicant’s judicial review claim but also goes on to...
Welcome to the April 2015 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. In this episode I cover some procedural points, several cases and some updates on commencement of the Immigration Act 2014. The material is all drawn from the April blog posts on Free Movement. If you would like...
The Conservative Party manifesto includes replacement of the Human Rights Act with a Bill of Rights. We already have a Bill of Rights, so the proposed Conservative version will need to be called something different. Perhaps Bill of Rights 2: The Dark Night Rises. The Bill of Rights of 1689...
Standing at the door to No 10, David Cameron stated that he would form a majority government and implement the Conservative Party manifesto “in full”. The moderating influence of the Liberal Democrats has been extinguished. The nationalist isolationism of the Scots and the SNP renders them irrelevant in UK politics...
David Bolt, the new Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, started work on 1 May 2015. It is now quite some time since John Vine stepped down, and since any report was published. The last sentence of the announcement rather jumps out: Prior to 2001, for 25 years Mr Bolt...
I’m voting Labour today, and I will be spending the day out campaigning for my local candidate, Sarah Sackman. No party is perfect and the last Labour Government was deeply flawed in many ways, particularly in its approach to asylum issues. I resigned my long standing membership of the party...
Rights of appeal under the Immigration Act 2014 are only available in refugee cases and if ‘the Secretary of State has decided to refuse a human rights claim made by [the person]’ (amended section 82 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002). This will clearly require a human rights...
Filmmaker Don McVey has put together an excellent documentary on the spouse minimum income rule and the devastating effect it is having on affected families and children. It is heartbreaking. Don does a great job of drawing out how arbitrary the minimum income threshold is, how biased it is against...
The treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans asylum seekers has been notoriously poor for many years. In 2010, my organisation, the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group, exposed that 98-99% of gay and lesbian asylum seekers had been refused asylum and told to go back, often to violently homophobic...
The ninth edition of Macdonald’s Immigration Law and Practice is now available for purchase. Fully updated with material on the Immigration Act 2014 and much, much more, this is an essential text for any serious immigration lawyer. You can pick up a copy here (affiliate link, and also I am...
Welcome to the March 2015 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month I cover legislative updates on appeal and visitors, a few asylum issues and then some Points Based System and other cases. The material is all drawn from the March 2015 blog posts on Free Movement....
Some new Policy Notices have emerged thanks to the Freedom of movement in the EU blog. They cover disclosure of notes taken in marriage interviews, further confirmation that EU law application forms are optional, updates to the Modernised Guidance on various EU law issues and on Comprehensive Sickness Insurance. Most...
The word “hopeless” appears five times in the determination of R (on the application of Rashid) v Secretary of State for the Home Department IJR [2015] UKUT 190 (IAC). While the judge remains fairly cool she was clearly irritated with Counsel. Much of the case is devoted to salvaging some...
The February immigration update course is now available with a 10 question multiple choice quiz. For the full list of available CPD courses, including the new course on social media for lawyers, see the courses page. Available to Tier 1 members only: click here to find out about the current...
In a useful case the Upper Tribunal addresses one of the “mind the gap” differences between the Immigration Rules and the requirements of human rights law. There is a growing body of case law that recognises that the two bodies of law are not, contrary to the Home Office position,...
