A big thank you goes to Jane Heybroek of Bell Yard Chambers for persisting with her Freedom of Information request in relation to further documents concerning the Evidential Flexibility policy. You can access the disclosure here. The policy (but not Jane’s FoI instructions) was very recently covered by the Upper...
The Free Movement forum launches today. It is intended to be a private, progressive space in which immigration lawyers, campaigners, academics, students and select others can help one another and discuss any or all immigration, asylum, nationality and human rights law questions and policy. To help create that space, the...
Last week, Asylum Aid published three research reports into the state of legal aid funding for fighting asylum cases. Taken together, they expose the corrosive effect on quality of the switch to the Graduated Fixed Fee (GFF) funding system in 2007 and the threat to the continuation of quality work...
At 2pm today a group of injunction applications for Tamils facing removal to Sri Lanka by charter flight on 28 February 2013 were heard before Mr Justice Wilkie and Upper Tribunal Judge Gleeson. A suspension on the removal of all Tamil failed asylum seekers was ordered (copy here). The cases...
Continuing in the spirit of innovation, the Free Movement legal forum will, all being well, launch next week. I’m seeking comments or feedback on the idea now before it goes live. A Join the forum introductory page has been added to the menu bar for a preview of what is...
With an unhealthy mixture of surprise, embarrassment and pride (emphasis on surprise, I think) we can announce that the Renaissance Chambers Immigration Team has been shortlisted for the Award for Innovation – The Bar at the Halsbury Legal Awards 2013. Congratulations for the slightly more respectable UK Human Rights Blog...
In Regulation (EC) No 343/2003 of 18 February 2003 establishing the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for examining an asylum application lodged in one of the Member States by a third-country national, when an applicant for asylum who is an unaccompanied minor with no member of...
The Court of Appeal has in the case of KS (Burma) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2013] EWCA Civ 67 found that the 2009 Country Guidance case of TL (Sur Place activities-risk) Burma [2009] UKAIT 00017 was legally flawed, effectively overturning it in what had become a...
Theresa May this weekend launched a blistering and unprecedented attack on ‘a minority of judges’, accused them of ignoring the will of Parliament by refusing to deport foreign criminals. Remarkably, she said that: A minority think it is their role to determine whether or not foreigners who commit serious crimes...
This instrument is drawn to the special attention of the House on the grounds it may inappropriately achieve its policy objective. House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, 6th Report of Session 2012-13, Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules (HC 194) (source)
...CM (EM country guidance; disclosure) Zimbabwe CG [2013] UKUT 59 (IAC) is important not only as Country Guidance on Zimbabwe but also on the law of evidence in the immigration tribunal. The broad effect of the Country Guidance findings are summarised in the headnote, already posted up last week on...
The Upper Tribunal has yet again rejected the government’s contention that new Immigration Rules define and delineate the extent of the United Kingdom’s human rights obligations. The latest case is Ogundimu (Article 8 – new rules) Nigeria [2013] UKUT 60 (IAC) but it follows on from two other recent determinations,...
Hard copy left, Kindle right (buying via these links throws me a very small bungreferral fee) Amazon doesn’t yet have an image but for those wondering about this year’s colour, it is a bit like the 2003 model but a slightly mintier green. Early reviews: “It would have been a...
In preparing my two year old toddler son for another trip to the swimming pool on Saturday morning, I suddenly realise that I am teaching him how to remember details, what are the important or ‘right’ details (by my reaction when I laugh or smile at the answer) and how...
No general duty on Secretary of State to disclose evidence in asylum cases, only not to mislead by omission Overturned Country Guidance in case of EM and Others (Returnees) Zimbabwe CG [2011] UKUT 98 (IAC) reinstated with amendment to account for RT (Zimbabwe) [2012] UKSC 38 Elections due in 2013,...
The latest report by John Vine, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, was published this week. It concerns applications to enter, remain and settle in the UK on the basis of marriage and civil partnerships and the summary of recommendations is that the UK Border Agency: Assesses all...
The very recent reported case of Khatel and others (s85A; effect of continuing application) Nepal [2013] UKUT 44 (IAC) consolidates the on going issues in relation to Points Based System Tier 1 Post Study Work applications: the date of the award and whether or not the Tribunal can consider evidence...
It’s early in the week, but already we’ve been hit by two biggish pieces of mainstream immigration news, neither of which really address real concerns, and nor will they have much of an impact. There have been reports that the government are considering a number of different methods to put...
Litigation is an expensive business, and immigration is a litigious business. As the recent brouhaha around judicial review revealed, the vast majority of judicial review cases in the High Court and on appeal up to the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court are immigration cases. On top of that are...
In asylum cases it is still referred to as The Legacy, as if it were a second rate Spagetti Western. In immigration cases it has the more prosaic title of the ‘migration refusal pool’. The UK Border Agency’s inspectorate has today [update: link to report here] unveiled yet more cases...
The charity Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) asked me to speak at their AGM last night and I was delighted to accept. It was held at Amnesty International’s Human Rights Action Centre in Shoreditch. I expected the auditorium seating to split open and launch Urgent Action One at any moment....
We at Renaissance Chambers wish to join the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, the International Commission of Jurists and the UK Bar Human Rights Committee amongst others and pay tribute to this brave woman who makes this statement though she fears for her life. Her dismissal signals to many the...
The decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Zambrano requires a lot of explaining. The process of seeking to understand its impact will continue for some time at an EU level and domestically. In Harrison (Jamaica) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2012] EWCA...
I have collected together all the blog posts for 2012 into an ebook, which is now available on the Kindle store. By a surprising automated process, the blog posts were automatically sucked up by some sort of scary blog muncher website and then spat out in pdf form, then converted...
A barrister … must promote and protect fearlessly and by all proper and lawful means the lay client’s best interests and do so without regard to his own interests or to any consequences to himself or to any other person (para 302, Code of Conduct of the Bar of England...
