As the third anniversary of the Operation Pitting flights loom, the Home Secretary has finally announced a scheme, Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme Pathway 1 Stage 2, that will allow for evacuated families to be reunited. Background In August 2021, the world watched in horror as the Taliban began to overwhelm...
In response to the judicial review claim R (MS) v SSHD AC-2024-LON-000866, the Home Secretary has admitted a practice of intentionally delaying claims for temporary permission to stay made by asylum seeking trafficking victims who were at the time earmarked for possible removal to Rwanda. The pause, which was not...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! For the third week in a row a person has died trying to cross the Channel to get to the UK. 23 people have lost their lives attempting that journey and there is a lot of this year left. Still nothing from the new government...
We have recently seen several cases where a person has received a ‘minded to curtail’ notice from the Home Office following the automatic extension of their permission under the EU Settlement Scheme. Below we look at what is happening in more detail and what people in this situation should do....
A new report “Immigration legal aid and value for money: Identifying the missing data” has identified relevant data that can and should be collected by various bodies in order to properly determine the impact that legal aid cuts have had in relation to cost-shifting elsewhere. The report is from the...
Last week the asylum process formally got moving again as the Illegal Migration Act 2023 (Amendment) Regulations 2024 came into force and so I thought it was a good opportunity to review the highs and lows of last year’s backlog clearance exercise. The impact assessment for the new regulations provides...
JOB DESCRIPTION – Counter Trafficking Legal and Policy Specialist Job title: Counter Trafficking Legal and Policy Specialist Contract: Permanent/Full time (37.5 hours per week) Salary: £40,000 p.a. Location: Old Street, Central London Report to: Director of Legal Protection Benefit: 27 days holiday plus 4% matched pension contribution The Helen Bamber...
A claimant has successfully challenged a move from his asylum accommodation after a failure on the part of the Home Office to engage with the evidence as to why the move was unsuitable because of his particular circumstances. In his case those circumstances were that he had won a scholarship...
The Illegal Migration Act 2023 (Amendment) Regulations 2024 have ended the prohibition on grants of leave for people who have claimed asylum. The effect of the regulations is to consolidate the inadmissibility backlogs as broken down by me previously. All cases currently sitting in the inadmissibility process will now be...
In a really interesting case, the High Court has held that issue estoppel prevents His Majesty’s Passport Office from refusing to issue a passport to an applicant, because of a finding made by the First-tier Tribunal that he is, in fact, British, despite the lack of evidence. That case is...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! There were two separate incidents last week in which a person lost their life while trying to cross the Channel. On Wednesday one person died and 71 were rescued, and the next day one person died and 85 were rescued. Nothing yet from the new government...
A recent response to a Freedom of Information request shows that there has been a sharp increase in the number of people being invited to more than one substantive asylum interview. In 2022, a total of 4,144 asylum applicants were invited to more than one substantive interview. In 2023 this...
The High Court has found that a decision to refuse to register a child as a British Citizen was lawful, despite the “barely stated” reasons given. The case is R (OBN (a minor) by his litigation friend ASM) v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 1833...
Being somewhat of a dinosaur (55) I can remember when the UK had a work permit system specific to entertainers and sportspeople. A little team of civil servants beavering away in an office near the Houses of Parliament, deciding who gets a work permit and who doesn’t. For two years...
Here is your June round up of Free Movement. In this episode Colin and Sonia discuss why the Illegal Migration Act should be repealed, an appalling decision on trafficking delays, a much better decision on section 3C leave, the raised standard of proof in asylum claims, one and a bit...
The King’s Speech has given notice that “A Bill will be introduced to modernise the asylum and immigration system, establishing a new Border Security Command and delivering enhanced counter terror powers to tackle organised immigration crime [Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill]”. The background briefing notes provide further detail on...
The court has held that a parent granted a family permit under the EU Settlement Scheme based on assumed dependency must show actual dependency to get leave to remain when applying after 1 July 2021. That decision is Secretary of State for the Home Department v Rexhaj [2024] EWCA Civ...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! Friday morning saw yet another avoidable tragedy as four people died while trying to cross the Channel to reach the UK. While the Prime Minister has sensibly declined to commit to “stopping the boats” (they will not stopped but can be reduced), the...
The Migration Advisory Committee has published a review of the seasonal agricultural worker route, concluding that people in this route are “particularly susceptible to exploitation” and that “the current enforcement landscape for Seasonal Workers is fragmented and does not offer an adequate safeguard of seasonal worker rights”. The report looks...
The change to the immigration rules on 11 April 2024 regarding how absences would be calculated in the long residence route initially caused a lot of confusion because the drafting of the new rules was ambiguous, yet the updated guidance seemed to suggest that the 548 day limit no longer...
The process for identifying and supporting survivors of trafficking has been seriously degraded over the past couple of years and in this article I look at the position in relation to grants of leave made to those people who have been identified as survivors of trafficking. Some recent decisions considering...
It’s the return of the “mystery” stamp! Although the Court of Appeal has come to a different conclusion than the Upper Tribunal did, holding that while a passport stamp did not amount to a relevant document for Appendix EU purposes, the protection of the Withdrawal Agreement was engaged because of...
As part of its recent “rapid review” of the graduate route, the Migration Advisory Committee commissioned a qualitative study of the experiences of people who use the route. That study has been published and looks at people’s motivations to study in the UK, attitudes towards and experiences of the Graduate...
The “Pending Prosecutions” section of the EU Settlement Scheme: suitability requirements version 8.0 policy, which provided for applications to be paused where there was a pending prosecution, has been held to be unlawful by the Upper Tribunal. The case is R (Lukasz Krzysztofik) v Secretary of State for the Home...
Rainbow Migration, the longest-running charity in Europe dedicated to supporting LGBTQI+ people through the asylum and immigration system, is recruiting a Legal Officer to advise and help improve the representation of LGBTQI+ people seeking asylum and help change the asylum and immigration system to one that treats everyone with compassion,...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! For those who are interested, here is the list of ministerial appointments from Friday. As expected, the Home Secretary is now Yvette Cooper. Diana Johnson and Angela Eagle have been added as Home Office ministers this morning but I haven’t seen any detail of their...
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons has published a report on an unannounced inspection of Harmondsworth immigration removal centre, a facility run by Mitie Care and Custody, concluding that “there is a huge amount of work to be done to get Harmondsworth even up to the mediocre standards we found at...
The High Court has again confirmed that mandatory sponsor licence revocation is, indeed, mandatory. One Trees Estates Ltd, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 1644 (Admin) brings consensus to the courts’ approach on the Home Office’s duty to undertake a wider...
In R (SM) v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 1683 (Admin), the High Court found a reasonable grounds (first stage) trafficking decision to be unlawful as it failed to consider all the relevant evidence and context in the claimant’s case. This is an interesting and...
A visit visa allows a person to visit the United Kingdom on a temporary basis, usually for up to six months at a time. As is typical of many sections of the immigration rules, the rules for visitors are complex and spread across several different appendices. The rules are also...
This post is for those who are new to the area of Windrush compensation claims, or who would like to submit their own claim, and is designed to be a beginner’s guide to the application process. Background to the scheme In April 2018, the news that long-term lawful residents, including...
The Court of Appeal has held that the Home Secretary wrongly found that the owner of a heavy good vehicle was not eligible for a reduction in the penalty applied to it following one of its drivers arriving in the UK with clandestine entrants. The case is KLG Trucking SRL...
Excess absences remain a real risk for holders of pre-settled status, with recent changes announced to the EU Settlement Scheme likely to cause more confusion. The changes mean that some people with pre-settled status may see their status automatically upgraded to settled status by the Home Office, while others may...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! We are finally down to the last few days before the election, and Refugee Council has published what looks like a pretty strong list of “day one” recommendations for the new government on asylum. The King’s Speech will take place on 17 July and we wait to...
I am looking forward to voting Labour on 4 July. I live in the Bristol Central constituency and am fortunate to have Thangam Debbonaire as my local MP. I’m doubly pleased to be able to vote for a Labour government and for Thangam personally. She would be a brilliant Secretary...
The Asylum Support Tribunal has found that there is a right of appeal against a decision to stop a person’s asylum support where their asylum claim has been deemed withdrawn by the Home Office, for example where the substantive asylum interview was missed. The Home Office guidance “Ceasing Section 95...
Immigration and nationality law as it relates to international adoption is undoubtedly complex and a topic with which only a few practitioners are familiar. There are numerically very few international adoption cases, after all. The inevitable cross over with family law does not make it any easier. This blog post...
