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Omenma (Conditional discharge – not a conviction of an offence) [2014] UKUT 314 (IAC) is an interesting case for two reasons. Firstly, the Home Office accepted that the decision was wrong and withdrew it. Nevertheless, because the case had reached the Upper Tribunal, the withdrawal of decision did not automatically...

18th July 2014
BY Colin Yeo

The luggage carousel of the tribunal’s reporting committee has spewed forth a fresh batch of cases. Two of them concern deportation, one under domestic primary legislation and the other under European Union law. The facts are very different but the cases illustrate well the stark differences between domestic and EU...

17th July 2014
BY Colin Yeo

Nearly 3 years after the end of the civil war in Libya that swept away the Qadhafi regime and its associated country guidance, and after nearly 8 months of deliberation, the Upper Tribunal has decided that Libya isn’t so bad after all, at least for men. The determination of AT...

16th July 2014
BY Jared Ficklin

No commentary is really needed, I think. The powerful judgment by Lord Justice Moses finds the residence test ultra vires (beyond the powers granted by Parliament) and unlawfully discriminatory. The judgment includes some choice wording. What follows are the words of the judgment, but with some missed out. You can...

15th July 2014
BY Colin Yeo

In Detention Action v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2014] EWHC 2245, Ouseley J considered a challenge to the lawfulness of the policy and practice applied by the Secretary of State in the operation of the detained fast track and concluded that it ‘carries with it too high...

15th July 2014
BY Free Movement

The first Commencement Order for the Immigration Act 2014 has been made: the Immigration Act 2014 (Commencement No. 1, Transitory and Saving Provisions) Order 2014 (SI 2014/1820). There is no known date for commencement of the main right of appeals provisions or the new removal power but some of the...

14th July 2014
BY Colin Yeo

In the case of R (on the application of FI) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2014] EWHC 2287 (Admin) the court was asked to review a decision to refuse to register as a British citizen a 14-year-old who had been settled with Indefinite Leave to Enter the...

14th July 2014
BY Amanda Weston

UPDATE: see report of Supreme Court judgment here. The judgment is now out in the long awaited case of MM v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2014] EWCA Civ 985, the test case challenging the minimum income threshold for spouses wishing to enter the United Kingdom. The Court...

11th July 2014
BY Colin Yeo

Yesterday was the two year anniversary of the harsh new immigration rules introduced on 9 July 2012. Tomorrow comes the Court of Appeal decision in the challenge to the spouse minimum income threshold. The effects of these rules are really beginning to bite: much misery has been caused by family...

10th July 2014
BY Colin Yeo

In MF (Albania) v SSHD [2014] EWCA Civ 902, the Court of Appeal considered and upheld the criticisms of the appellant’s country expert made by the Upper Tribunal. In doing so, the Court appeared to disapprove of the practice of instructing expert witnesses to comment on particular findings made by...

10th July 2014
BY Free Movement

The latest unannounced official HMIP report on Haslar immigration detention centre reveals that the centre staff had blocked the websites for Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) and Amnesty International: Detainees had access to the internet, but some key websites were blocked. The officer on duty in the internet suite could...

9th July 2014
BY Colin Yeo

HM Chief Inspector of Prisons report on an unannounced inspection of Dover Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) between 3–14 March 2014 (published 7 July 2014) once again highlights critical concerns surrounding Rule 35 of the Detention Centre Rules 2001. Dover IRC is generally commended, although its atmosphere appears to remain that...

8th July 2014
BY David Rhys Jones

  I was just taking a look at the official immigration statistics to compare refusal rates for different nationalities. This jumped out at me, though: the refusal rate for visa applications by Syrians now stands at 57%. There was a 16 percentage point jump in the refusal rate between 3rd...

8th July 2014
BY Colin Yeo

Thanks to @ein_website for spotting it, looks interesting and useful.

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7th July 2014
BY Colin Yeo

The Court of Appeal has finally grappled with the question of how to apply the best interests of children in an immigration context and given detailed guidance on how judges should approach the exercise. The judgment, in the case of EV (Philippines) & Ors v Secretary of State for the...

4th July 2014
BY Colin Yeo

UNHCR has identified a number of countries to work with initially to revisit detention practices and to strengthen alternatives to detention, including Hungary, Indonesia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Thailand, UK and Zambia. Source

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3rd July 2014
BY Colin Yeo

[Update: CPD course now available for Members] Welcome to the June 2014 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. As normal, the material for the podcast is drawn from blog posts on Free Movement. This month I start by saying a little bit about the new Immigration Act before...

3rd July 2014
BY Colin Yeo

The Home Office has updated its statistics on the number of families with pending applications separated by the £18,600 minimum income threshold for spouses. At the end of December 2013 it was 3,014. At the end of March it stood at 3,641. That is a LOT of separated families and...

2nd July 2014
BY Colin Yeo

R (on the application of NS & others) v SSHD [2014] EWHC 1971 (Admin) The challenge was primarily to the presumption of “no recourse to public funds” which was inserted into the Immigration Rules at Appendix FM paragraph D-LTRPT 1.2 in December 2012. The argument applies equally to paragraph 276BE....

1st July 2014
BY Amanda Weston

Sign up now as a Free Movement Member and get a free Immigration Act 2014 ebook! Free Movement Membership starts at £50 plus VAT per person for groups of 10 or more and is available to all. Membership includes access to the forums and is a cheap and convenient way...

30th June 2014
BY Colin Yeo

Having been overruled by the Court of Appeal in the case of Rodriguez [2014] EWCA Civ 2 (FM post here), Mr Justice McCloskey, President of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber of the Upper Tribunal, has returned to the vexed issue of ‘evidential flexibility’ in a trio of cases: Durrani (Entrepreneurs:...

27th June 2014
BY Colin Yeo

So, the Home Office was doing such a bad job of immigration control that it decided to outsource its responsibilities to employers, then universities, then doctors and now, under the Immigration Act 2014, private citizen landlords. But the same Home Office is surprised and horrified that these institutions are no...

24th June 2014
BY Colin Yeo

In partnership with Legal Action Group, Garden Court Chambers’ Public Law Team is pleased to present an up-to-date overview of all aspects of public law, together with cutting-edge strategies for securing positive outcomes. Click image for full details and programme.

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21st June 2014
BY Garden Court Chambers

Haleemudeen on remittal to UT: SoS conceded Edgehill applied, no need for deference to post-July 2012 and found disproportionate on Art 8 — Mansfield Chambers (@MansfieldImm) June 20, 2014 Free Movement write up and prediction here. And an update from Paul Richardson, Counsel for Mr Haleemudeen:

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20th June 2014
BY Colin Yeo

Just a quick one to flag up a new report by Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration John Vine into the European Casework Directorate at the Home Office. The report is generally quite positive but the emphasis of the press release, introductory text and subsequent press reports is on potentially...

20th June 2014
BY Colin Yeo

Court of Justice of the European Union in Saint Prix v UK (Case C‑507/12): Article 45 TFEU must be interpreted as meaning that a woman who gives up work, or seeking work, because of the physical constraints of the late stages of pregnancy and the aftermath of childbirth retains the...

20th June 2014
BY Colin Yeo

In the past eighteen months Migrant Legal Project (MLP) has represented a number of Vietnamese minors on remand or serving Detention and Training Orders at Young Offender Institutes. All had been picked up for criminal offences relating to cannabis cultivation. Forced labour for cannabis cultivation is the most common form...

19th June 2014
BY Free Movement

This film looks interesting, and I’ve agreed to participate in a panel discussion beforehand, it being literally just round the corner from where I live in East Finchley. Full details and tickets here.

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18th June 2014
BY Colin Yeo

In Hameed (Appendix FM – financial year) [2014] UKUT 00266 (IAC) the Upper Tribunal has no hesitation in finding that it is the tax year that applies when calculating income, not a business’ own accounting year. No actual reasons are discernible as such.

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18th June 2014
BY Colin Yeo

Yesterday I gave a short talk at an event organised by the Campaign to Close Campsfield as part of Oxford Refugee Week. It was an excellent, well attended event in a packed room at the town hall and I’m grateful for the chance to have spoken. My first demonstration was...

17th June 2014
BY Colin Yeo

Judgment has finally been handed down in the latest test case on Dublin removals to Italy, Tabrizagh and others v SSHD [2014] EWHC 1914 (Admin) and although it is on any view bad news, there is much in it to consider. In a carefully reasoned and frankly impressive decision the...

16th June 2014
BY Free Movement

I’m delighted to be speaking on Monday night at this event with the Campaign to Close Campsfield as part of Oxford Refugee Week. My first demonstration was at Campsfield when I was a student and it was my first contact with the world of refugee law and the way we...

15th June 2014
BY Colin Yeo

Just a note to say that the search engine powering searches on Free Movement has been upgraded. Search results should be improved. Searches for multiple words are ‘AND’ by default but you can override by specifying ‘OR’ instead. There is an ever increasing amount of content, particularly with the new...

15th June 2014
BY Colin Yeo

In a big win for legal aid lawyers and their clients, the High Court has held to be unlawful the refusal of legal aid in six test cases and has additionally held unlawful the guidance applied by the Legal Aid Agency in refusing legal aid: It follows from what I...

13th June 2014
BY Colin Yeo

No, not an amendment to take account of the judgment in O v The Netherlands C‑456/12 (blog post: Surinder Singh immigration route) [ed: who knows how long we will have to wait for that] but one to try to limit the period during which an EU national is considered to...

13th June 2014
BY Colin Yeo

The case of Rodriguez, Mandalia and Patel [2014] EWCA Civ 2 is to be reconsidered by the Supreme Court, this months grants of permission reveals. The case concerns the ‘evidential flexibility’ policy that I think was first publicly revealed here on Free Movement. It is a chance for the Supreme...

12th June 2014
BY Colin Yeo
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