A former judge from Afghanistan refused leave to enter the United Kingdom has won part of his case against the Home Office. The judge had sat on innumerable cases involving Taliban fighters and he and his family are currently in hiding. He did not qualify for entry under the criteria...
Last week the Supreme Court found that a financing scheme to help individuals qualify for an Investor visa did not comply with the requirements of the immigration rules. The case is R (on the application of Wang) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] UKSC 21 and the...
It has become fashionable for government ministers to refer to “bespoke” humanitarian schemes and such like, referring to programmes like those for Ukrainians and Hong Kongers. The illusory scheme for Afghans was once trumpeted as a “bespoke” scheme as well, but it has effectively been mothballed and some of those...
South West London Law Centres are recruiting (3 x Immigration Solicitor/Caseworker positions) Salary up to £36,377 per annum depending on experience. Hours – Full Time or Part Time Considered South West London Law Centres (SWLLC) is recruiting 3 x new Solicitor/Caseworker (permanent positions), expanding our highly respected and friendly team...
Today marks the 75th anniversary of the disembarking of the passengers on board the ship the HMT Empire Windrush at Tilbury docks on 22 June 1948. Even now, five years after the Windrush scandal broke, many well-informed and well-intentioned journalists, writers and policy-makers do not really grasp the true legal...
JOB TITLE: Immigration Supervisor/Solicitor LOCATION: Flexible (Office/Remote working) RESPONSIBLE TO: Immigration Services Manager CONTRACT: Permanent, full time (35 hours) SALARY: £29,174-£35,411 p.a START DATE: To be confirmed TO APPLY: Your CV & covering letter should be sent to jobs@cabb.org.uk, clearly stating the role you are applying for. Role Profile Key...
The National Audit Office has this morning published a report on the Home Office’s asylum and protection transformation programme. It is not pretty reading. Asylum support costs have soared to an astonishing £3.6 billion this year, double last year’s amount. Sunak’s target of clearing the ‘legacy’ asylum backlog by December...
The Seasonal Worker route is one of those visas in the Temporary Worker family, allowing people to come to the UK for short stints without the right to stay long term. Seasonal Worker visas made up around half of all temporary worker grants in the year ending March 2023. 35,122 seasonal worker visas...
A Scottish Fatal Accident Inquiry has held that a number of defects in the system of working in Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre led to the death of a 54-year old Chinese man which could have reasonably been avoided. A Fatal Accident Inquiry, similar to an inquest in England, is an...
This isn’t going to come as a surprise to many lawyers. The Court of Justice has concluded that The loss of the status of citizen of the European Union, and consequently the loss of the rights attached to that status, is an automatic consequence of the sole sovereign decision taken...
The annual UNHCR global trends report was published today. It shows a marked increase in the global refugee population, to 29.4 million refugees internationally, excluding Palestinians. The equivalent figure in the 2021 report was 21.3 million. Where are they hosted? Only a tiny proportion in the UK: In contrast, 339,300 refugees...
How should we seek to comply with the rules relating to foreign language witness statements in litigation that are governed by the Civil Procedure Rules, including judicial review proceedings in the Administrative Court, and civil actions in the Kings Bench Division and County Courts? The relevant rules and guidance relating...
I don’t think Sonia and I have a great deal of competition in the “monthly immigration law update podcast” niche, strangely, but all the attention on net migration has caused a few podcast series to turn their attention to immigration generally. There are three I’ve heard in the last couple...
The High Court has decided it should not invoke its wardship jurisdiction in relation to missing and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. In Article 39 v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWHC 1398 (Fam), Article 39, a charity promoting and protecting the rights of children in England who are...
More than a quarter of people crossing the Channel in small boats came from Albania in 2022, although the numbers have since then declined massively. Until recently, around half of asylum claims from Albanian nationals were initially accepted. However, a report by the House of Commons Home Affairs committee concludes...
In a report published yesterday, the Joint Committee on Human Rights warns that the Illegal Migration Bill would deny access to the asylum system to the vast majority of refugees, in breach of a number of binding international human rights obligations, if it was passed in its current form. You...
The common travel area enables passport-free and legal travel between the United Kingdom (including Northern Ireland), the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands for British and Irish citizens and migrants with lawful status. Once a person is within the common travel area, there are no...
The Ukraine Scheme homelessness statistics released each month provide an update on the long-term consequences of additional schemes for people with Ukraine Scheme visas. Monitoring of progress through regular data publication (even if incomplete) highlights where the government and local councils are doing well, and where they are not. You...
Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick today announced that the government was dropping its “differentiated status” approach to refugees, introduced less than one year ago as the centrepiece of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022. The policy was to put refugees who arrived without prior permission on a ten year route to...
On 26 May, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) published a report ‘Asylum Screening in the UK: An audit of the UK’s asylum intake, registration and screening procedures and recommendations for change’ which identifies a number of problem areas. They visited registration and screening locations across the UK between June...
The Independent Monitoring Authority has released a report following an inquiry into the delays in issuing Certificates of Applications to EU Settlement Scheme applicants. The report confirms the government’s obligations under the Withdrawal Agreement and evidences where and why delays are occurring. It found that the Home Office failed to...
We live in a reaction economy. The age of social media means that governments, companies, and others in the public eye are not ruled by accountants assessing their bottom line or journalists scrutinising their actions, but by voters tapping onto their screens at home. Few government departments have embraced this...
On 22nd May 2023 the Upper Tribunal published a new country guidance on case on Democratic Republic of Congo, PO (DRC – Post 2018 elections) (CG) [2023] UKUT 00117. PO considers the risk of persecution for political opponents following the election of Felix Tshisekedi in 2019, significantly narrowing the scope...
On 1 December 2020, the Grounds for Refusal in Part 9 of the immigration rules were amended, providing the Home Office with a wider scope to refuse permission applications and cancel existing permission. They include stricter mandatory grounds of refusal which, when applicable, require that applications for permission “must be...
A judgment in the High Court details multiple examples of unlawful detention of individuals re-entering the UK because an unpublished Home Office policy wrongly suggested officers had the power to stop, detain and question individuals who have unpaid NHS debt. The case is MXK & Ors, R (On the application...
The unduly harsh test in deportation cases has been subject to litigation for years and we have written about it in several articles, most recently in relation to the Supreme Court case of HA (Iraq). The Court of Appeal has now published its judgment in Sicwebu v Secretary of State...
Following the abolition of the “not in accordance with the immigration rules” ground of appeal by the Immigration Act 2014, several cases have considered the relevance of the immigration rules in human rights appeals. The Upper Tribunal has neatly encapsulated the current position in a recent case, Caguitla (Paragraphs 197...
JOB TITLE: Children’s Asylum Solicitor/ Caseworker LOCATION: Asylum Aid Office (London) RESPONSIBLE TO: Immigration Supervisor CONTRACT: Permanent, full time (37.5 hours) – part-time working considered (minimum 22.5 hours per week) SALARY: £35,000 p.a. (pro rata if part time) BENEFITS: 27 days holiday plus 4% matched pension contribution START DATE: August...
The Upper Tribunal has set aside a decision of the First-tier Tribunal after finding the hearing was unfair because of the conduct of the judge and the failure to adjourn the case when the Home Office Presenting Officer raised concerns over her personal safety. The Upper Tribunal in MS (judicial...
The latest quarterly immigration statistics were published today. Most of the media focus is on net migration and the Office of National Statistics ONS report. Net migration turned out to be around 600,000 rather than the 700,000 or more that some had predicted. Here, though, we’re going to focus on...
There is only a day left to respond to the Migration Advisory Committee’s (MAC’s) current call for evidence on what roles should appear on the Shortage Occupation List. Employers have until 26th May 2023 to put forward their cases for why certain job roles and types should be added to...
The government have introduced a new bill confirming people’s British citizenship rights to confirm how British nationality law is applied to people born in the UK to parents who are EU citizens between 1 January 1983 and 1 October 2000. The British Nationality (Regularisation of Past Practice) Bill follows the...
The Global Business Mobility: Service Supplier route is for overseas workers who are undertaking temporary assignments in the UK. The applicant must be either a contractual service supplier employed by an overseas service provider or a self-employed independent professional based overseas. The service performed must be covered by one of...
In a written statement to parliament today, Suella Braverman announced that the government intends to tighten the rules for international students in an attempt to bring down net migration figures, which are due to be published this Thursday, 25 May. The government have also published a news story to confirm...
The Independent Monitoring Authority (IMA) has released an update on the concerns raised with the EU Settlement Scheme and the implications of the Home Office’s updates to the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) accounts of EU Settlement Scheme applicants who received a refusal decision between 27 June 2021 and 19...
In January this year, the Home Office updated its guidance on reporting conditions, again. Version 6 was published on 19 January 2023, replacing version 5 which was in place for less than six months, from 30 June 2022. Version 5 Version 5 was very much a welcome development in terms...
Some big news at Free Movement. Two bits of big news, in fact. New Editor Firstly, I am delighted to announce that Sonia Lenegan is joining Free Movement as the new Editor in August. She will be replacing me, although I’ll still be lurking in the background and contributing from...
Rainbow Migration, the longest-running UK charity dedicated to supporting LGBTQI+ people through the asylum and immigration system, is recruiting a Legal and Policy Director to join our management team. The Director will lead and develop our unique immigration advice service and draw on the experiences of our service users to...
