Once upon a time, the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 required the government to “seek to negotiate” a deal with the EU on family reunion for child refugees. Without such a deal, the looming end of the Dublin III arrangements will make it much harder for unaccompanied children in Europe...
The Home Office may have to pay compensation in the case of major blunders, the Court of Appeal has said in a significant new ruling, Husson v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWCA Civ 329. Challenging an impressive new low by the Home Office, Mr Husson sought...
I’ve been working on Appendix EU from the very beginning, and it still boggles my mind with its complexity. We can admire the Home Office for creating a practical application process (the EU Settlement Scheme) that most people will be able to use without legal assistance — while at the...
The government continues to keep us immigration lawyers on our toes, and everyone else completely flummoxed, with yet another statement of changes to the Immigration Rules. Thankfully, many of these changes are welcome as they plug gaps in the EU Settlement Scheme. But it is difficult to keep up with...
The High Court has granted a Female Genital Mutilation Protection Order in the case of a 10-year-old girl who the Home Office is trying to remove to Bahrain. The case is A (A child) (Female Genital Mutilation Protection Order Application) [2020] EWHC 323 (Fam). A has lived in the UK...
How can a young man with Asperger syndrome and poor mental health, who has lived in the UK for the overwhelming majority of his life, be deported to Jamaica? The Voice newspaper reports on the case of Osime Brown, a 21-year-old man who the Home Office is trying to deport....
The Home Office has updated its guidance on Surinder Singh cases to remove all reference to a “centre of life” test. This follows the case of ZA (Reg 9. EEA Regs; abuse of rights) Afghanistan [2019] UKUT 281 (IAC) in which the Upper Tribunal found that the test was made-up...
In asylum and criminal deportation and probably all areas of immigration, credibility is the key. Some of my own techniques for building credibility into a statement include: I “read” or “watch” the client’s narrative like a novel or a film. I then ask whatever question springs to mind to make...
Whilst survivors and campaigners welcomed the reintroduction of the Domestic Abuse Bill in parliament last week, there is a clear consensus amongst us that the government’s “landmark” legislation fails to protect migrant victims. In order for the UK to comply with its domestic and international obligations, the Bill must include...
The High Court has held that the Home Office trying to apply its “deport first, appeal later” policy to EU citizens is incompatible with European Union law. The case is Hafeez v Secretary of State for the Home Department & Anor [2020] EWHC 437 (Admin). Background: the deport first, appeal...
The Home Office has announced an extension of funding to help vulnerable EU citizens to apply for settled status. £8 million will be made available for charities and councils working to get people through the EU Settlement Scheme in 2020/21, a slight fall on the £9 million allocated last year....
You’ve met with your client, taken detailed instructions and advised them on the intricacies of the Immigration Rules, the maze of policy guidance and possibly even made highfalutin’ reference to case law relevant to their situation. Now you’ve actually got to put in their immigration application. And this is where...
The Sikh community in Afghanistan used to be a sizeable religious minority within that country, but the effect of persecution over the past 30 years has meant that 99% have now emigrated. The United Nations and other international observers estimate that there may be only 1,000 Sikhs left in Afghanistan,...
An Immigration Bill will be introduced to the House of Commons later today, the government has announced. It is expected to be similar to the one introduced in 2018 by then Home Secretary Sajid Javid, which ultimately lapsed when the Johnson government took power and secured a general election. The...
Migrants’ Law ProjectSolicitor/Caseworker/Barrister Salary Band £34,986 – £38,404A salary of £44,373 may be considered for those at Supervisor level with high levels of experience and expertise Annual leave: 25 days per annum plus bank holidays The Migrants’ Law Project, a dynamic public law and public legal education team at Islington...
The Upper Tribunal has dismissed a judicial review of the restricted leave policy. This policy governs the grant of leave to remain in the UK to people who the Home Office wishes to remove but cannot because it would breach the European Convention on Human Rights. The restricted leave policy...
The Home Office has updated its policy guidance on immigration bail, with a couple of changes to note. First, asylum seekers who have exhausted their appeal rights will no longer automatically be subject to study restrictions. This is the result of successful litigation from Hannah Baynes at Duncan Lewis, and...
KF et ors (entry clearance, relatives of refugees) Syria [2019] UKUT 413 (IAC) concerns an 18-year-old Syrian refugee sponsor, whose mother, father and younger siblings applied for family reunion with him. The key principles identified by the tribunal do not emerge particularly clearly from the headnote, so it is worth...
In OA v Secretary of State for Education [2020] EWHC 276 (Admin), the High Court has ruled that the student loan regulations unlawfully discriminated against migrant victims of domestic violence and abuse. The rules required three years’ lawful residence in the UK to qualify for a student loan but failed...
The Home Office has been concealing important data about the EU Settlement Scheme, an independent inspection report suggests. While the department refuses to release the number of “disguised refusals”, or to disclose gender breakdowns relevant to its equality law obligations, it appears to have had that information at its fingertips...
Check out this hilarious bit of spin in the Home Office’s “factsheet” on yesterday’s immigration statistics: …the UK continues to be a desirable location for the brightest and best around the world… The number of highly skilled visas issued [in 2019] has increased by 7% to 5,664. The majority of...
More immigration judge appointments have been trickling in this month: Jennifer Bartlett, 39, solicitor Idris Evans, 53, solicitor Nicholas Aldridge, 48, solicitor Daniel Sills, 40, solicitor turned barrister Julius Komorowski, 37, advocate Nawraz Karbani, 35, barrister Anthony Cartin, 34, barrister turned solicitor Michelle Brewer, barrister (recently gave a speech on...
Yesterday’s government announcement on The Future Relationship with the EU made it clear that the United Kingdom would not seek to participate in the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) scheme. This will not come as a surprise to those who have been watching this issue since the referendum: the prospects of...
The Home Office is “managing relatively comfortably” with the millions of European residents applying for post-Brexit settled status, a long-awaited review has found. The department finally published the results today of an inspection of the EU Settlement Scheme by David Bolt, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration. A...
The number of people with pending asylum cases has risen by almost 50% in just the last 12 months, new Home Office figures show. Over 56,000 asylum seekers and their dependants were awaiting an initial decision or further review at the end of 2019, compared to 38,000 at the end...
Over 11 years since the decision in SZ and JM (Christians – FS confirmed) Iran CG [2008] UKAIT 82, the Upper Tribunal has revisited the question of risk on return for certain groups of Christians in Iran. The result is PS (Christianity – risk) Iran CG [2020] UKUT 46 (IAC)....
The years since the EU referendum have been an emotional rollercoaster for European citizens in the UK. Initial shock and disbelief were followed by months of uncertainty and tension as the British government negotiated a transitional agreement – which failed to get parliamentary approval for over a year – and...
The Supreme Court has found in the case of DN (Rwanda) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] UKSC 7 that the detention of a Rwandan man facing deportation was unlawful because the deportation order on which detention was based was itself unlawful. In this case the deportation...
Ronnie Latayan came to the UK from the Philippines on a visit visa in 2004 and has been here ever since, through multiple unsuccessful applications for further leave to remain. Now 46, Ms Latayan lives with her mother, a naturalised British citizen with an Irish partner. In Latayan v Secretary...
Patel (British citizen child – deportation) [2020] UKUT 45 (IAC) considers the importance of British citizenship held by children of people being deported from the UK. The case concerned an appeal brought by Mr Patel, an Indian citizen, against a decision to deport him following a 2016 conviction for money...
Another reported case that would perhaps have been more effective and appropriate as a passive-aggressive Post-it note stuck on the office kettle at Tribunal HQ: Permission should not be granted on the grounds as pleaded if there is, quite apart from the grounds, a reason why the appeal would fail....
Are you learning about immigration law in the United Kingdom? We have just published Introduction to immigration law: everything you need to get started. This introductory ebook is perfect for beginners getting to grips with immigration law and practice, whether for the OISC Level 1 exams, the Legal Aid Agency...
The case of SD (British citizen children – entry clearance) Sri Lanka [2020] UKUT 43 (IAC) shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone following developments around Appendix FM and the rules relating to the rights of family members of British citizens to move to the UK. That does not, though,...
This week we finally got to see more detail about the 2021 Points Based Immigration System. The government’s announcement confirms that every organisation in the UK — from businesses to charities, schools to local shops — will need to become an “approved sponsor” to employ EU citizens who are new...
In a mammoth new judgment the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights has developed a significant exception to the general prohibition on summary removal of migrants without consideration of their individual circumstances. In recent years European countries have resorted to summarily deporting migrants who have recently crossed...
Outsourcing firm Serco is to take over two immigration removal centres run by rival G4S, the Home Office has announced. The Hampshire-headquartered company, which already runs the notorious Yarl’s Wood detention centre, will take over Brook House and Tinsley House from May 2020. The contract runs until 2028, with an...
In the case of Tahir Yaseen v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWCA Civ 157, the Court of Appeal has reiterated that refusals on the ground of character or conduct require a balancing exercise, taking into account both positive and negative considerations. The appellant, Mr Yaseen, made...
The government has released a few more details of what it calls a “points based system” for immigration to the UK after Brexit. To balance out the impending end of free movement of workers from the European Union, it would allow employers to sponsor migrant workers at lower salaries and...
