By choice they made themselves immune/To pity and whatever mourns in man/Before the last sea and the hapless stars A few weeks ago I spent a Friday evening reading through some of the war poems of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. I was trying to get to grips with a case...
On Wednesday 23rd October 2013, Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights heard oral evidence on the government’s latest proposals to cut legal aid. The evidence was clear. Those that will suffer the most from the proposals are society’s most vulnerable groups – children, care leavers, and victims of sexual abuse...
Where an immigration official alleges that a document used in an application is false or forged, a ‘Document Verification Report’ (DVR) is routinely prepared. This report states the reasons why immigration officials believe the document is false. It is vital that an applicant suspected of deception can answer the charge,...
The new Immigration Bill proposes removal of rights of appeal to an independent judge, to be replaced with and replacement with ‘Administrative Review’ by one of its own staff. Immigration appeals have almost a 50% success rate according to the Government’s own figures: A recent Freedom of Information request I...
The Immigration (EEA) Regulations 2006, Regulation 10(5)(d)(iv) provides for the continued right of residence of family members of EEA nationals exercising Treaty rights in the UK whose relationships have ended due to domestic violence, whilst it does not afford the same right of continued residence to unmarried partners of EEA...
The new Immigration Bill (see Ronan’s previous post “Summary of clauses“) is so packed with nastiness that some really unpleasant parts of it – perhaps the whole of it – will make it to the statute book. No mainstream politician with influence will today stand up for the rights of...
According to the recent Missing the Mark report by the excellent UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group, a worryingly high proportion of LGBTI asylum claims are refused because the Home Office does not believe that the claimant has ‘proved’ his or her sexual orientation.
...I want to persuade you that our first task when faced with a social evil like the Immigration Bill is not to just to condemn but to understand it. I say that because those who fail to grasp the deeper motives driving this legislation will underestimate the magnitude of the...
In the recent case of Pensionsversicherungsanstalt v Peter Brey [2013] EUECJ C-140/12 (19 September 2013), the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) ruled that welfare benefit legislation which automatically bars benefit to an EEA national from another Member State based on the right to reside requirement is contrary...
I’ve had quite a few queries asking for updates on the spouse minimum income case, MM & Ors v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2013] EWHC 1900 (Admin). The challenge to the rules essentially succeeded in the High Court but the Home Office have appealed to the Court...
The judgment in Secretary of State for the Home Department v Al-Jedda [2013] UKSC 62 was handed down this month. It is the latest in a series of higher court decisions on the issue of deprivation of citizenship and the first to reach the Supreme Court. Many immigration practitioners are...
Child abduction is a criminal offence. It requires covert departure from the UK to another country, and from the abductor’s point of view preferably one that is not in Europe, not a signatory to the Hague Convention and that does not have a bilateral agreement with the UK. The incredibly...
The Court of Appeal has held that a different test applies to children in human rights health cases. These difficult cases involve a person seeking to remain in the UK in order to receive life-saving medical treatment not available in his or her home country. The recent case of Rose...
As noted in last week’s lengthy missive, the challenges to removals to Greece continued after the decision of the ECtHR in KRS v United Kingdom [2008] ECHR 1781 culminating in the decision that such removals were unlawful in MSS v Belgium and Greece [2011] ECHR 108. The news of the...
Originally posted at the Justice Gap. From as early as the 1880s doctors began to report a truly puzzling medical condition. Eventually named ‘Anton’s Syndrome’, medics noticed that some patients who had suffered a sudden loss of sight continued to deny their blindness, pretending that they could see, constructing ever...
Theresa May spent over a year saying her new immigration rules would weaken Article 8 rights for “foreign criminals” but conceded the point within a day at the Court of Appeal. MF (Nigeria) v SSHD [2013] EWCA Civ 1192 makes clear that the Immigration Rules governing deportation now provide a...
Regular Free Movement readers will have noted the recent addition of the Garden Court Chambers logo to Free Movement at the top of the sidebar and some excellent recent posts by some of my new colleagues, Ronan Toal, Greg Ó Ceallaigh and Taimour Lay. There will be further future contributions...
The difference between a recession and a boom, as any legal aid lawyer will tell you, is that during a boom the government cuts legal aid, whereas during a recession they cut everything else as well. There was a timely reminder yesterday from President of the Supreme Court Lord Neuberger...
The new Immigration Bill is a sinister, nasty piece of legislation. Building on man-made laws that define certain humans as ‘illegal’, it seeks to create an even more hostile environment for an already marginalised section of society. People are to be deprived of employment, bank accounts, driving licences, accommodation and...
The Upper Tribunal has listed an appeal to be heard in December in which it intends to give further country guidance about returns to Mogadishu. No doubt the case will address the contention long advanced by the Secretary of State that the situation has so improved that the current guidance...
The good name of the greatest city in Ireland, and indeed Europe, has long been sullied by association with the Dublin II Regulation, which followed the original Dublin Convention as the means by which countries unfortunate/fortunate enough to be along the Mediterranean are lumped with the vast majority of asylum...
From The Guardian write up: Casting you as a border guard for a fictitious eastern European republic, your job is to decide whether a succession of would-be immigrants have the right paperwork to get through. Presented in charming 8-bit style, it’s all good fun to start with, but the longer...
The long promised Immigration Bill, consisting of 66 clauses and 8 schedules, has now been published. It is accompanied by explanatory notes and a detailed memorandum by the Home Office intended to show that the Bill is compatible with ECHR rights. ‘Highlights’ include:
...When a right of appeal is removed, what is removed is a valuable and necessary constraint on those who exercise original jurisdiction. That is true not merely of immigration officers but of anybody. The immigration officer who knows that his decision may be subject to appeal is likely to be...
The various Michigan Guidelines are always thoughtful, interesting and deserving of attention. These documents are the output of a colloquium hosted by Professor James Hathaway’s University of Michigan’s Program in Refugee and Asylum Law. Hathaway is one of the most influential and inspiring academics on the subject of refugee law...
I first met Zahir when he transferred to the United Kingdom Immigrants Advice Service (UKIAS) office in Manchester in 1974. I often recall sitting in his office discussing cases, seeking his expert advice and telling him of our plans for the development of the offices in the North. Sadly UKIAS...
The MoJ say that for the first time, you can search not only Upper Tribunal ‘reported’ decisions but also ‘unreported’ decisions, which make up 96% of cases. The new website includes all of the ‘reported’ decisions by the tribunal and the ‘unreported’ ones after 1 June 2013 (those prior to...
Migrants will not stop coming to Europe in search of a better life no matter how many sea patrols the politicians send. Families will not allow themselves to be torn apart no matter how tough the immigration rules get. Our politicians are fighting basic human needs and basic human nature....
