Those following the law around the prosecution of arrival in small boats may be interested in the ruling from the preparatory hearing in R v Mohamed and others. The purpose of the hearing was to provide a clear ruling on points of law that are likely to arise time again...
Colin and Sonia take a look back at 2022 and ahead to 2023 as well as covering the immigration updates from December 2022. Looking back, they talk about small boat crossings, the Ukraine and Hong Kong schemes, the impact (or lack of) the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, the Rwanda...
In a powerful judgment given on 21 December 2022, the High Court ordered the Secretary of State for the Home Department to immediately increase the weekly support payments made to asylum seekers to £45. This is the largest ever single increase in the rate of asylum support and is made...
The case of Muslija (deprivation: reasonably foreseeable consequences) [2022] UKUT 337 (IAC) makes it clear that the reasonably foreseeable consequences of deprivation of British citizenship do not include predicting the outcome of a subsequent human rights appeal. The case concerns an Albanian national who obtained refugee status, and subsequently citizenship,...
The government has announced a review of the civil legal aid market with the aim of supporting long-term sustainability and efficiency. The review will also consider taxpayers’ value for money in any future policy options, as well as how people access the support they need. The review will come in...
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Let’s say you made a normal application for settlement on the UK Ancestry route five months ago and you are still waiting for a decision. You receive word that a family member abroad is sick and you need to travel home urgently. There’s no option for retroactively upgrading the outstanding...
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Every year I try to take stock and look ahead to the coming year. Last year I picked out delays in the asylum system, historically low figures for the removal of failed asylum seekers, low levels of asylum support and small boat crossings as major issues. Two of these have been...
The Brexit fall out continues with the High Court finding in the case of Independent Monitoring Authority v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWHC 3274 (Admin) that the EU settlement scheme is unlawful. The scheme was set up by the British government to transition the lawful basis...
The Upper Tribunal has issued guidance on the use of material from an applicant’s social media accounts in age assessment proceedings in R (BG) v LB Hackney [2022] UKUT 00338 (IAC). The brief facts The standard directions made by the Upper Tribunal in age assessment proceedings required the asylum seeker...
Now that the High Court has decided that the Rwanda policy is lawful, at least at a general level, many people will be wondering when the government will attempt another removal flight. This question will be no doubt be causing a lot of worry to people in Home Office accommodation...
In the clause “had that citizenship by his birth, adoption, naturalisation or registration in the United Kingdom”, does the requirement for it to be in the United Kingdom apply to just registration or all of the other means of acquiring citizenship on the list? This was the question before the...
The Upper Tribunal has issued country guidance about the risk from gangs in El Salvador. In EMAP (Gang violence – Convention Reason) El Salvador CG [2022] UKUT 00335 (IAC), the Upper Tribunal makes helpful findings about the general context in which persecution by gangs takes place in El Salvador and...
The High Court has concluded in the case of AAA and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWHC 3230 (Admin) that the UK government’s Rwanda plan is lawful. The individual decisions in the case were inadequate and will need to be re-made, but that is no...
One of the measures announced by Rishi Sunak in his asylum statement on 13 December 2022 was the re-starting of hostile environment immigration checks on bank accounts. These checks were introduced by the Immigration Act 2016 but were paused by Sajid Javid in 2018 when he was Home Secretary. There...
The problems faced by pre-settled status holders who cannot show a qualifying right to reside when trying to access benefits have been dragging on for several years. Notwithstanding their lawful immigration status, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Regulations treat them as a person not in the UK and...
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In recognition of the rising cost of living, and as a ‘thank you’ for ongoing support from hosts, a £650 million support package has been announced as part of the Homes for Ukraine scheme. All sponsors will receive £500 a month, where they have been hosting Ukrainians in their homes...
A report on the fact-finding mission in Albania on human trafficking, conducted between 5 and 12 October 2022, was published shortly before Rishi Sunak’s new new immigration plan was announced yesterday. As a result of the reports findings, the Albania Country Policy and Information Note on human trafficking has been...
Rishi Sunak announced yesterday a number of measures to address the government’s self-made asylum backlog. The tone of Sunak’s statement was more measured than the sometimes rather unhinged rhetoric to which we have become accustomed, although he still introduced the topic as being about “illegal immigration”. There were no attacks...
The Migration Advisory Committee’s annual report provides a comprehensive reflection on the impact of the ban on people working while they await a decision on their asylum claim, as well as other shortfalls in the immigration system. The report confirms a number of ways that immigration and asylum policy pushes...
This month, Colin and Sonia mainly talk about an avalanche of asylum-related news, law and updates. It’s not all asylum, though, there’s also some blog posts to go over on Comprehensive Sickness Insurance, third party support in spouse applications, marriages in durable partner cases, the opening of the citizenship route...
Well-known human rights barrister Adam Wagner, based at Doughty Street Chambers, recently published Emergency State: How we lost our freedoms in the pandemic and why it matters (Bodley Head, 2022). I’m going to start this blog post with a short fairly conventional review of the thrust of the book. But...
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The High Court has dismissed a challenge to the decision to cancel two individuals’ permission to remain in the UK because they exceeded the number of hours they were permitted to work. Shah & Anor v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWHC 3033 (Admin) is a useful...
The tribunal quarterly statistics for the period July to September 2022 show that waiting times for appeals have increased, but the number of new cases entering the tribunals continues to decrease. The number of cases being decided has also increased. The statistics show that the average time to clear all...
The High Court has provided a warning to practitioners about the importance of pursuing negotiations in false imprisonment claims. The case of Moradi v The Home Office [2022] EWHC 3125 (KB) also concerns the timings of those negotiations. The judge took the opportunity to express his concerns that the parties...
The Home Office has released a statement confirming that thousands more immigration cases are to be heard in the coming months, apparently in a bid to speed up decisions on removing people with no right to be in the UK. The government is investing five million pounds to increase the...
I missed this at the time and only saw it thanks to Joshua Rosenberg’s helpful Substack. SW v United Kingdom (App no. 87/18) was about a judge making adverse findings about a social worker and referring her to her professional body without giving her a chance to respond. The Human...
In September 2022, the Home Office published a new Country Policy and Information Note (CPIN) on blood feuds in Albania. David Neale, legal researcher at Garden Court Chambers, has provided an in-depth review of the publication, which you can read here. Mr Neale argues the new CPIN on blood feuds...
Further submissions or a ‘fresh claim’ is a process for submitting an asylum (or human rights) application where there has been a previous failed claim and all appeal rights have been exhausted. It can be an effective tool for rectifying years of uncertainty for a failed asylum seeker however the...
Over the last few days refugees have hit the headlines once again. Amongst other things, there has been talks of a two-tier asylum system, and it was reported that the Home Office’s Afghan citizens’ resettlement scheme (ACRS) has not yet accepted and evacuated anyone from Afghanistan. Suella Braverman’s forward to...
Immigration practitioners will be familiar with being told that when trying to appeal against a determination of the First-tier Tribunal it is not necessary for the Tribunal judge to address every matter raised by an Appellant in the written judgment. Yet, in KG (Turkey) v Secretary of State for the...
In a change to which some of us may struggle to adjust, tribunal judges are now to be addressed in court or correspondence as “judge” rather than “sir”, “madam” or (cringe) “ma’am”. So say the Lord Chief Justice and the Senior President of Tribunals: The current practice is to address...
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The delayed Independent report on the operations of closed material procedure under the Justice and Security Act 2013 has now been published. Sir Duncan Ouseley, the retired Judge that conducted the review, stated that support for special advocates was a “major issue”. Special advocates are appointed to deal with closed...
Regular readers of Free Movement will be aware of the recent judgment finding serious breaches of the duty of candour by the Home Office in the mobile phone seizures case. Jed Pennington has discussed the judgment in a previous post. But, what is the duty of candour? The duty of...
As we move into a post-pandemic working environment, the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) has been developing its working practices, according to the regulator’s annual report for 2021/22. And as it catches up on delayed investigations (conducting 81 in the year 2021/22) the OISC secures two convictions for...
An amendment to the Immigration Skills Charge Regulations 2017 is due to come into force on 1 January 2023. The regulations state that businesses sponsoring overseas workers, subject to certain exemptions, must pay a charge each time a certificate of sponsorship is assigned to that worker. The amendment adds to...
