Practitioners will no doubt be aware of the Supreme Court’s decision in AM (Zimbabwe) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] UKSC 17. The justices endorsed the European Court of Human Rights decision in Paposhvili v Belgium (application no. 41738/10) and thereby materially lowered the threshold for resisting...
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Campaigners are pursuing compensation for EU citizens wrongly found to be unlawfully resident for lack of private health insurance. The CSI Justice campaign, launched by lobby group the3million, follows the recent Court of Justice ruling that EU nationals did not need Comprehensive Sickness Insurance to be legally resident in the...
Many readers will know that I was helping with the new Ukraine Advice Project for much of March. The UAP (as we inevitably refer to it amongst ourselves) is really a mass mobilisation of UK immigration lawyers to give pro bono advice directly to people fleeing the war in Ukraine...
There is a new Practice Direction and a new Practice Statement for the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber). Both were published yesterday and replace previous versions that applied to both the First-tier and Upper immigration tribunals. The Practice Direction has rules about: Online appeals Case management hearings Adjournments Witness...
This was the unsurprising finding of the Upper Tribunal in R (Ashrafuzzaman) v Entry Clearance Officer (precedent fact; general grounds refusal) [2022] UKUT 133 (IAC). The exception is where human rights are involved (more on that later). Although the case concerned a refusal under the old paragraph 320(7A), the findings...
The Upper Tribunal judgment in SMO & KSP (Civil status documentation; article 15) Iraq CG [2022] UKUT 110 (IAC) comes as a relief for those representing Iraqi nationals who fear that they cannot be properly re-documented on return to Iraq. The case provides guidance on whether someone sent back to...
Welcome to episode 100 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we’ve got some pretty major asylum stuff to go over plus quite a few different topics, including compensation for unlawful removal, the unending saga of the English language tests, new immigration fees, changes to work visas, a...
The signatories of the Refugee Convention thought that some people didn’t deserve protection on account of having committed particularly heinous crimes. They therefore introduced “exclusion clauses”, found at Article 1F of the Convention. Accordingly, The provisions of this Convention shall not apply to any person with respect to whom there...
The Home Office has published a new statement of changes to the Immigration Rules (HC 17). It is largely focused on changes to the asylum system following the passage of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 and the agreement with Rwanda to export refugees to that country. The changes come...
Newly released government documents justifying the refugees-to-Rwanda policy will be independently scrutinised, the immigration inspector has announced. The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) is inviting tenders for a country expert to review four detailed publications on the asylum and human rights situation in the East African country....
Boris Becker, three-time Wimbledon champion and many people’s favourite German, has been sentenced to two and a half years’ imprisonment for offences under the Insolvency Act 1986. Assuming Becker hasn’t acquired British citizenship, will he be deported following the conclusion of his custodial sentence? Automatic deportation The UK Borders Act...
The government has invested huge political capital into its refugee deal with Rwanda. Equally immense resources of time and energy will also no doubt be ploughed into getting a few unfortunate refugees on a plane there at some point. This is a monumental opportunity cost: there are really serious but...
In C-349/20 NB and AB v Secretary of State for the Home Department, the Court of Justice of the European Union has again addressed the question of when Palestinian refugees are entitled to refugee status under EU law. This is the fourth major judgment on this issue we have seen...
Refugees are in the news. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has provoked one of the largest, fastest and geographically widespread exoduses of recent years. Thousands of Afghans who escaped from their homeland in the aftermath of the Taliban takeover are still waiting to find a permanent home. Largely ignored by...
In HA (expert evidence, mental health) Sri Lanka [2022] UKUT 111 (IAC) the Upper Tribunal considers whether the removal of a Sri Lankan man with mental health difficulties would violate Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 3 prohibits inhumane and degrading treatment. Where a person’s mental...
A damning report on healthcare and safeguarding in detention has concluded that the existing protocols for vulnerable detainees are “totally and utterly flawed”. The Medical Justice report Harmed not Heard focuses on the inadequacy of the Rule 35 safeguarding process, designed to identify vulnerable detainees for release. The research comes...
Very belatedly (it is now well over two months since Russia invaded Ukraine), the Home Office has finally launched what it calls the Ukraine Extension Scheme. This is basically just a way for Ukrainians already in the UK to extend their stay lawfully. Until now, for example, a Ukrainian on...
We are recruiting for a new Deputy Editor (Training). The previous post-holder has had to step down for personal reasons unconnected to the job, unfortunately. The job is to commission and edit new courses and keep our existing training materials up to date, including our range of ebooks. It is...
From April 2022 the Home Office has moved to using telephone reporting as a mainstream reporting alternative. This follows on from changes implemented on an emergency basis during the pandemic lockdown and sustained lobbying by migrants rights groups. People who are given a telephone appointment slot will be notified of this...
The Nationality and Borders Act 2022 hit the statute books yesterday. The Home Office says that the Act “puts into law that those who arrive illegally in the UK – who could have claimed asylum in another safe country – can be considered as ‘inadmissible’ to the UK asylum system”,...
Expert reports are common in asylum and human rights cases. They usually address either the conditions in the applicant’s country of origin or their physical or mental health. The duties of an expert witness giving evidence in court are well established. Specific guidance for experts providing reports for cases in...
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The “hostile environment” that has come to define the UK’s approach to immigration policy is by now such a well-known phrase that I wonder if it has lost all meaning. It was no doubt used as a point of pride by those who popularised the term during Theresa May’s tenure...
There should be a higher minimum wage just for social care workers rather than looser visa rules, the Migration Advisory Committee has recommended. Releasing a new MAC report on the impact of Brexit on adult social care, chair Brian Bell said: We maintain that only a significant rise in pay...
The Home Office has withdrawn its “pushback policy” which purported to set out a plan to return migrant boats in the English Channel to France. The climbdown follows recent skirmishes over expert evidence and disclosure — see [2022] EWHC 517 (Admin) and [2022] EWHC 823 (Admin) — as part of...
My textbook on refugee law, imaginatively entitled Refugee Law, is published today. It is aimed principally at undergraduate and graduate students on refugee law courses, or related courses where students need to learn about refugee law and the protection of refugees. It will also be useful to lawyers and advisers...
This decision forms the next episode in the saga of cases arising from the Test of English for International Communication (“TOEIC”) certificates obtained from test centres in the United Kingdom administering tests set by the Educational Testing Service (“ETS”). The BBC Panorama programme broadcast on 10 February 2014 exposed widespread...
For a UK immigration application to be considered at all, it must be valid. Whether an applicant meets the criteria is a moot point if this first, fundamental requirement isn’t met. Validity is a bit like oxygen: all things being well, it is invisible and unnoticeable. You only notice it...
Are you a “foreign criminal” if you were a British citizen when convicted and sentenced, but you’ve lost that citizenship by the time the Home Office decides to deport you? Yes, said the Court of Appeal in Zulfiqar v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWCA Civ 492,...
Ali v The Home Office [2022] EWHC 866 (QB) is a successful appeal against the Central London County Court’s decision to dismiss the false imprisonment claim of a recognised Afghan refugee, detained for 98 days under the Detained Fast Track process in 2015. Larry has previously covered the County Court decision, which...
The Home Office has finally published details of the requirements for sponsors in the UK Expansion Worker visa category. Part of the Global Business Mobility family, it replaces the Sole Representative visa — but how effectively does it fill this niche in the UK immigration system? “Evolving in tandem with...
The government has announced a deal to export the UK’s responsibility to assess asylum claims and host refugees to Rwanda. Boris Johnson said in a speech that “anyone entering the UK illegally, as well as those who have arrived illegally since January 1st, may now be relocated to Rwanda”. This...
The UK-Rwanda memorandum of understanding on asylum processing is now available. It sets out the terms of the agreement between the countries at a high level but provides some insight into how this scheme is supposed to work. Before removal Importantly, the UK has committed to undertaking an “initial screening”...
Imagine you are a Ukrainian refugee. Imagine you have left your home, your job, and almost all of your possessions behind. Perhaps your husband or son or father — or perhaps all of them — have stayed behind to fight. You head for the nearest border. Maybe that is Poland,...
How broadly does the decision in R (Afzal) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 1909 protect applicants from the catastrophic consequences of becoming an overstayer after making an invalid application to extend immigration permission? As a reminder, the Court of Appeal in Afzal held that...
The Law Commission is working on an 18-month project to roll up all the UK’s Acts of Parliament on immigration into one giant Immigration Act. A spokesperson confirmed to Free Movement that the law reform body has agreed to carry out a consolidation of the primary legislation dealing with immigration....
The Court of Appeal has held that the unlawful removal of a vulnerable Afghan child and the 18 months of disruption to his private life entitles him to damages under the Human Rights Act 1998 and under EU law. The case is QH (Afghanistan) v Secretary of State for the...
A successful application for asylum or humanitarian protection in the UK results in the grant of five years’ permission to stay, on what is known as a “protection route”. People granted permission on a protection route then need to apply for settlement, or “indefinite leave to remain”, shortly before the...
There is no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and British and Irish citizens are able to cross the land border freely. Section 11(4) of the Immigration Act 1971 means that journeys within the Common Travel Area — both over the land border, and across the...
