The fact that the Detained Fast Track asylum appeal process was systemically unfair doesn’t mean it was automatically unfair in every case decided under it, according to the Supreme Court. The case is TN (Vietnam) [2021] UKSC 41. TN is a Vietnamese asylum seeker who first came to the UK...
In Velaj (EEA Regulations – interpretation; Reg 16(5); Zambrano) [2021] UKUT 235 (IAC) the Upper Tribunal looked at whether the Home Office accidentally liberalised the regulations on when the primary carer of a British child can be removed from the UK. The tribunal concluded that it did not. As a...
Mark Henderson, Rowena Moffatt and Alison Pickup have produced an update of the seminal Best Practice Guide to Asylum and Human Rights Appeals and (bless them) made it available online through the Electronic Immigration Network. As a dumb medic, I cannot pretend to have any useful opinion about most of...
The judgment in Arturas (child’s best interests: NI appeals) Lithuania [2021] UKUT 237 (IAC) looks interesting at first, but turns out to be terrifically arcane. It is about the consequences of a failure by the Home Office to comply with its duties concerning the best interests of children. In most...
Updated on August 2021 version with change of one essential criterion from ‘necessary’ to ‘advantageous’ Rainbow Migration, the leading UK charity dedicated to supporting LGBTQI+ people through the asylum and immigration system, is recruiting a dynamic new position of Legal & Policy Director. We have built an impressive reputation for...
Changes to Appendix EU and Appendix EU (Family Permit) to the Immigration Rules come into force on 6 October 2021. This post attempts to flag the significant changes that are likely to impact on current and future applications. Joining family members As far as Appendix EU is concerned, the first...
Scattered throughout the latest statement of changes like needles in a 186-page haystack are three COVID-19 concessions that previously only appeared in Home Office guidance. They will now form part of the Immigration Rules. In immigration law, a concession is a policy operated by the Home Office that is more...
New from the Upper Tribunal: MY (Suicide risk after Paposhvili) Occupied Palestinian Authority [2021] UKUT 232 (IAC). The case is about migrants who seek to rely on Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights to resist removal from the UK on the basis that they are very seriously...
When is an immigration application made “in time”? Does it need to be submitted before the expiry of the applicant’s visa? Or is an application made after the visa expires, but within the grace period permitted under the Immigration Rules, also “in time”? This is the issue considered by the...
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The Home Office has put out some details on the new Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS). It is highly topical but arguably irrelevant from an immigration lawyer’s point of view, because immigration law runs on applications and you cannot apply for this scheme. The document confirms as much in paragraph...
The supposed “turn-around” policy for migrant boats is similar to previous reports of wave machines or floating fences. It sounds tough but will never be implemented. Policies aimed at the interception or interdiction of asylum seekers at sea are fairly common. Australia, the United States, Italy, Greece and Spain have...
Welcome to episode 92 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we begin with EU citizens’ rights before moving to a couple of cases on Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights as it applies to migrants. We then discuss asylum, including a disappointing Supreme Court...
Yes. Children can be removed from the UK as part of a family. They can, on paper, also be deported in their own right for criminal offending: the Home Secretary’s power of deportation under the Immigration Act 1971 is not limited to under-18s, and the Home Office has specific guidance...
The Home Office is routinely missing its target for issuing new residence permits to people who lose their British citizenship, figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show. Those deprived of their citizenship for (often historic) deception are promised a decision on their human rights claim to remain in...
In 1956, after Soviet tanks had rolled into Budapest, the United Kingdom resettled around 11,000 Hungarian refugees in a matter of months. In 1972, after Idi Amin gave them 90 days to leave, the United Kingdom resettled nearly 30,000 Ugandan Asian refugees. Between 1979 and 1983, the United Kingdom resettled...
This is where we keep tabs on changes to UK immigration laws, rules and procedures brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. We’ve been trying to keep this post continually up to date rather than covering new coronavirus developments as separate blog posts that may become rapidly out of date. Material...
The government has released details of its sponsorship “roadmap” for employers recruiting skilled workers from abroad. This follows on from the publication of its New Plan for Immigration back in March 2021. The new roadmap sets out the Home Office’s proposals for long-overdue “radical changes” to the sponsorship system, which...
The Nationality and Borders Bill 2021 has lain dormant over the summer but will be taken up again once Parliament returns on 6 September. Down in the miscellaneous provisions is a requirement for people entering the UK without a visa or British/Irish passport to register in advance. Known as electronic...
When a person’s visa expires whilst they have an outstanding application or appeal, they have what is referred to as “3C leave”. This is named after section 3C of the Immigration Act 1971, which essentially provides that the person’s visa continues until the application is decided. An important and seemingly...
The UK’s emergency evacuation of Afghan civilians ends today, ahead of the 31 August deadline for the withdrawal of Western troops from Afghanistan. Where does that leave Afghans hoping to escape the Taliban for safety in Britain? That’s the subject of this episode, in which I’m joined by two lawyers...
The backlog of asylum cases has passed 70,000 despite a fall in the annual number of applications. Almost 71,000 asylum seekers, including dependants, were awaiting an initial decision on their claim for refugee status as of 30 June 2021, according to new Home Office figures. The overall backlog has doubled...
Jobs that British employers struggle to recruit for are on the Shortage Occupation List. With separate entries for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, it seeks to be responsive to the needs of industry across the devolved nations. The Migration Advisory Committee advises the UK government on which roles should...
The Senior President of Tribunals has appointed six new immigration judges since we last checked in on recruitment: Abdullah Khurram, 39, immigration and criminal defence solicitor Rachel Galloway, 39, barrister formerly at Kings Chambers in Manchester Christopher Lester, 46, solicitor turned barrister with the Crown Prosecution Service Dawn Hyland, 50,...
A costs judge has backed a leading firm of solicitors in its dispute with a former client over a £194,000 bill for work on her asylum case. The judgment is Farrer & Co LLP v Yertayeva [2021] EWHC B16 (Costs). Ms Yertayeva is a Kazakhstani businesswoman, described by the judge...
The Home Office has published a new policy on Medical evidence in asylum claims. For years there had been policy on medico-legal reports from the Helen Bamber Foundation and Freedom from Torture. There was also a much scrappier policy on medical evidence not from those medical foundations. This new August...
Selami Cokaj describes himself on LinkedIn as “a shrewd businessman, with a killer instinct”. It is an unfortunate turn of phrase: before moving to the UK in 1997, Mr Cokaj was convicted of murder in his native Albania. His unsuccessful human rights appeal against removal from the UK was decided...
Sending asylum seekers to have their claims processed “offshore” as a deterrent to boat arrivals doesn’t work, according to Australian experts examining their own country’s experience. A policy briefing by the Kaldor Centre at the University of New South Wales, published last week, warns other countries of the “failure of...
In Chowdhury v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 1220, the Court of Appeal has confirmed that where an extended family member applies for an EEA residency card, their period of dependency on their EEA citizen sponsor must have not have been broken up by periods...
The ripple effects of Paposhvili v Belgium [2016] ECHR 1113 continue to be felt at the boundary of Article 3 ECHR. In the first reported decision of its kind, the Upper Tribunal has found that the “modified” (for which, read “lowered”) test for Article 3 breach in medical treatment cases...
Like many refugee lawyers I have watched in horror as the Taliban, taking their cue from the US troop withdrawal, have swept through Afghanistan. At time of writing, it has been confirmed that the Taliban have taken most of the country, including the major cities of Kandahar, Mazhar-Al-Sharif, Herat and...
Welcome to episode 91 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we begin with a Supreme Court decision on deportation and some developments on immigration judicial reviews. We then move to business immigration, where a new type of visa has just been announced, and then off in the...
ZV (Lithuania) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 1196 is an important case about the admissibility of asylum claims made by EU citizens. There is a long-standing rule that asylum claims by EU nationals will only be considered in exceptional circumstances. It is presently contained...
A Jamaican man who has been in the UK for over 20 years must be deported, the Court of Appeal has confirmed. The court held that Logan Reid, 51, had not established that his deportation would be “unduly harsh” on his teenage son, given the child’s otherwise stable home life....
I’m a partner at Fragomen and we work in every bit of immigration, other than asylum. That means helping skilled people, entrepreneurs, families and others move to or stay in the UK, including pro bono support for vulnerable people who can’t afford a lawyer. It also means keeping people and...
