UPDATE: Full text of speech is here. As UN countries gear up for 2 years of negotiations on new politically binding compacts on refugees and migrants, the PM will seek to put down an early marker by proposing three specific principles that should guide our approach: A first safe country....
Welcome to the May 2016 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. In this (slightly belated) episode I cover a number of tribunal then Court of Appeal then High Court cases, including on refugee children and adult dependent relatives, move on to cover several issues around litigation including costs,...
Last week saw the release of this year’s Legal 500 lawyer rankings. For those fortunate enough to receive a ranking it is an eagerly awaited event, as the excellent Legal Cheek coverage demonstrates: Humblebrags galore as latest Legal 500 listings revealed. Garden Court Chambers as a whole did very well...
In a joint statement made yesterday, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Chief Justice and Senior President of Tribunals announced that all courts and tribunals will be moving towards an online model and will also merge into a single justice system. The proposals for the civil courts have been described as a...
The Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, David Bolt, has criticised Home Office handling of applications by family members of refugees settled in the UK. His new report found the Home Office was too quick to refuse applications which might ultimately succeed once fuller evidence was provided, particularly where it...
From September 2016 parents, guardians and carers in England will be asked to state if their children are foreign nationals. Families can refuse to answer. The UK Government has required childminders, nurseries, schools and colleges to collect country-of-birth and nationality data for children aged between 2 and 19. This policy...
1. In response to an allegation that a person should be excluded under Article 1F(a) of the Refugee Convention because there are serious reasons for considering that the person has committed a crime against peace, a war crime or a crime against humanity as defined in the Rome Statute, there...
The UK government, and Europe, has spared no expense to ensure that wherever the people trying to get to Europe end up, it isn’t here. But the courts are seemingly doing their best to help. The Court of Appeal’s judgment in Secretary of State for the Home Department v ZAT...
Official statement by David Davis on Brexit: And so, as we proceed, we will be guided by some clear principles. First, as I said, we wish to build a national consensus around our position. Second, while always putting the national interest first, we will always act in good faith towards...
The Home Office has imposed fines on small businesses for employing illegal workers of over £14 million in just a three month period. The period covered is January to March 2016. The list of businesses targeted by officials appears to include mainly small ethnic minority shops and takeaways. It is...
The Upper Tribunal’s jurisdiction to decide an application for Judicial Review is not affected by the applicant’s being in Scotland. The Tribunal will, however, consider issues of forum non conveniens if it is suggested that its jurisdiction should not be exercised. Not sure that the Scottish judiciary will be terribly...
A considerable number of Japanese businesses operating in Europe are concentrated in the UK. We have been informed of a variety of requests that these businesses have in relation to BREXIT including: maintenance of trade in goods with no burdens of customs duties and procedures; unfettered investment; maintenance of an...
The Home Office is reported to be testing a new online fast track application process for EU migrants in the UK. The Financial Times first carried the story but it was also picked up and confirmed by The Guardian. In summary, the new fast track application process is said to...
The Free Movement online course on the Immigration Act 2016 is now available. Based on the text of the popular ebook, the course is enhanced with 32 minutes of key points videos and clear signposting of which sections of the Act are currently in force and which are not. There...
Evidence had come to light that ETS tests in the case of these two men may have been taken by a proxy. Therefore their leave to remain in the UK was curtailed. The Court of Appeal agreed with the Home Office, quashing the decisions of the Upper Tribunal, which alongside...
Welcome to the April 2016 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. In this (slightly belated) episode I cover some issues around child cases in human rights and in asylum cases, move on to cover several important procedural issues, including expediting EU residence card applications, and then end with...
New Home Office guidance on Marriage Investigations has been published. Formally, it is Chapter 30 of the Enforcement Guidance and Instructions. The purpose of the guidance is stated on page 1: This guidance is aimed primarily at Immigration Enforcement staff involved in investigating allegations of sham marriage, civil partnerships and...
A new 152 page guide to judicial review applications has been issued by the Administrative Court Office. It is vitally important reading for all practitioners: The Guide does not have the force of law, but parties using the Administrative Court will be expected to act in accordance with it. There...
As highlighted by the Red Cross, the Home Office has introduced a new and improved refugee family reunion policy. The big change seems to be to the treatment of adult children of refugees who have managed to reach the UK. They are still to be refused under the Immigration Rules,...
The Court of Appeal has refused permission to appeal the decision by Mr Justice Cranston in the Detained Asylum Casework challenge test case. The latest judgment is R (On the Application Of TH (Bangladesh) & Ors) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] EWCA Civ 815. You can...
The Home Office has published a new 285 page report of a UK fact finding mission to Eritrea from February 2016 and updated its country policy documents on illegal exit from Eritrea and military service. From a quick glance, it looks like there is little change in the Home Office...
Welcome to the March 2016 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. In this (rather belated) episode I cover several EU law issues that are still relevant even after the Brexit vote then move on to cover some of the more important cases featuring on the blog in March...
The new Asylum Policy Instruction on Sexual Orientation Issues in the Asylum Claim, published last Wednesday, marks an unwelcome retrograde step for the Home Office, which still continues to apply the ‘voluntary discretion test’ to gay asylum claims, even though this has been held to be unlawful, as a matter...
Certification of Albanian asylum claims as clearly unfounded were in this case overturned by the Court of Appeal. Much turns on the individual circumstances of the case. An important point of law is on the threshold for certifying an asylum claim as “totally without merit” is as follows: 75. The correct...
The Competent Authority, the Home Office body which deals with human trafficking claims, did not, in refusing to investigate a claim, breach the procedural obligations of Article 4 ECHR, the Court of Appeal ruled. The Respondent claimed to have been trafficked into Russia from Vietnam where he worked in slave...
This family life case highlights the important point that the ‘7-year rule‘ – that young people under 18 must have lived in the UK for at least 7 years – must be satisfied at the date of application. It is not sufficient that the rule, in Immigration Rules paragraph 276ADE...
The Court of Appeal has given further guidance on the convoluted and badly drafted statutory presumptions on human rights in UK law. Trying to make sense of interlocking provisions in the UK Borders Act 2007, the Immigration Rules as amended (and amended and amended) and the Immigration Act 2014, the...
The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner is making substantial changes to its CPD scheme with immediate effect. You can read about the changes on the OISC website. To help those affected, Free Movement is running a special offer of a 50% discount for the first year of Free Movement...
Interesting but unsuccessful judicial review of the refusal to grant British citizenship to a former Serbian police officer on good character grounds. The good character refusal was based on his activities as described at paragraph 5 of the judgment: The Claimant was born on the 8th of August 1981 in...
In a decision of 27 May 2016, the Inner House of the Court of Session held that excluding the spouses of refugees from the so-called ‘domestic violence concession’ (DVC) in Section DVILR of the Immigration Rules discriminates against such spouses in violation of Article 14 of the European Convention of...
In the first successful challenge to prosecutions under s.35 of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants etc.) Act 2004, the Administrative Court in R (on the application of JM (Zimbabwe)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] EWHC 1773 (Admin) held that the Home Office may not...
Fees for judicial review applications hare risen yet again from today, Monday 25 July 2016. A new fees order was quietly laid last Friday: The Civil Proceedings, First-tier Tribunal, Upper Tribunal and Employment Tribunals Fees (Amendment) Order 2016. The fees going up are for the permission stage and they rise...
Imagine being told that everything you thought you knew as truth was an absolute lie. Imagine starting a journey with your peer group and then unexpectedly being ripped away from the same path. Imagine feeling as if no one understands your pain, your frustration, your anger. Imagine feeling like as...
The latest from the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, David Bolt: The report found that the Home Office had maintained the quality of its initial response despite the significant increase in ‘lorry drops’. The report also found that: there was a risk that minors placed in the care...
Available to ILPA members only, interesting report of the tribunal initially refusing to expedite a refugee family reunion appeal but agreeing to do so after a pre action letter was sent. Made a huge difference to the listing time. Source: Note on expediting cases in the First-tier Tribunal by Ben...
Brexit question and answer session Last Friday evening Steve Peers, Professor of European Law at the a university of Essex, Samia Badani of New Europeans and Matthew Evans of the AIRE Centre participated in a live question and answer session organised by Migrant Rights Network on the impact of Brexit...
UPDATE: A Home Office source says that the update is a mistake, incredibly. Form AN for applying to naturalise as a British citizen has just been updated to state that a permanent residence certificate or card is NOT mandatory for EEA nationals and their family members. It now says: Please Note:...
If you attempt to murder someone with a gun, and after release from prison for attempted murder (a sentence of over four years), are caught again with a loaded gun and imprisoned, do not be surprised that only the most exceptional circumstances will save you from deportation. This was all...
The official headnote: (i) The effect of the amendment of the regime in paragraph 41/SD of Appendix A to the Immigration Rules via HC628, dated 06 September 2013, is that any application for entry clearance or leave made before 01 October 2013 is to be decided in accordance with the...
