The High Court has awarded damages of just £3,750 to an Algerian man for a period of five months of unlawful detention. This was just the latest period of immigration detention for Mr Sino, though, who has been detained for a cumulative total of seven years and two months. Mr...
A consultation on amendments to the practice direction on duty of candour in judicial review proceedings has been launched by the judiciary. The consultation paper has been prepared by Lewis and Cranston JJ. The headline refers to the Defendant’s duty of candour but in fact very little indeed is proposed...
Very interesting piece on allowed appeals and quality of decision making by Robert Thomas of the University of Manchester. Particularly interesting given the reduced appeal numbers owing to high appeal fees in employment and now seemingly in immigration. There is also an important debate in relation to the rate of...
BL (Jamaica) v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] EWCA Civ 357 is essentially an unhelpful judgment for convicted criminals arguing against deportation orders on Article 8 grounds. It overturned a McCloskey J and UTJ Perkins decision in the Upper Tribunal that allowed the appeal from a...
This guidance tells Interventions and Sanctions Directorate (ISD) case liaison officers about the driving licence revocation process, including how to deal with a request made by a migrant with a UK driving licence, or the migrant’s representative, not to revoke the driving licence. Source: Offender management – Publications – GOV.UK
...As the western world struggles to cope with the influx of immigrants fleeing tyranny and war, The Making of an Immigration Judge cuts through the hysteria of the headlines to provide a definitive account of the problems facing Europe today – and how we might solve them. With more than...
The Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, David Anderson QC, has issued a report on citizenship removal resulting in statelessness. There had been no cases during the period covered by the report, 30 July 2014 to 29 July 2015, so the report does not go into any specifics. Anderson instead reviews...
The First-tier Tribunal has allowed the Home Office appeal against the Information Commissioner’s decision that training slides used to inform Home Office Presenting Officers on the 2014 legislative reforms to human rights law should be released. Some additional limited information will be published but the Home Office’s internal instructions to...
In the recent case of R (on the application of C) v First-Tier Tribunal and Others [2016] EWHC 707 (Admin) (not yet on BAILII but available on Westlaw) Picken J ruled that the immigration tribunal can appoint a litigation friend to represent a person who lacks capacity even though there...
MS -v- SSHD AA/07855/2013 Useful note from Kalvir Kaur at the Anti Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit (ATLEU). Thanks for circulating, Kalvir: In a strongly worded judgment, The Hon. Mr Justice McCloskey, President and Upper Tribunal Judge Blum held that the tribunal has jurisdiction to make their own decision on whether an...
As if Michael Gove MP needed further reminding, in wake of Colin Yeo’s appearance on World at One on Wednesday where he pointed out the fundamental error of the Justice Secretary’s assertion that Britain cannot deport EEA nationals with a criminal record, the Supreme Court in R (on the application...
The Government is proposing a massive fivefold increase in immigration appeal fees in order to make the immigration tribunal the only part of the court and tribunal service entirely self funded by fees: We therefore propose increasing fees in the First-tier Tribunal from £80 to £490 for an application for a...
JCWI is running a new fundraising campaing to create a series of plaques in the style of the blue national heritage ones to celebrate the contribution of refugees to our society over time. …In fact refugees have historically been huge contributors to innovation, industry and culture around the world. Refugee populations...
Excellent report by Catrin Nye into unlawful immigration detention and the compensation paid to those wrongfulyl detained. Good to see Conservative MP Tim Loughton speaking out on the wastefulness of the process, the pointlessness of detaining then releasing, as occurs in 60% of cases, and referencing the recent Shaw Review....
Michael Gove yesterday claimed amongst other things that: Inside the EU we have to accept that anyone with an EU passport – even if they have a criminal record – can breeze into this country. That will include countries in the pipeline to join the EU – Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro,...
The Garden Court Chambers Immigration Team wishes to recruit two outstanding advocates who can demonstrate a strong commitment to civil liberties. We expect to recruit individuals with up to three years post qualification experience. Candidates must be immigration specialists committed to practising within the principles and ethos of chambers. The successful...
The Supreme Court has allowed the appeal against the residence test for legal aid, overturning the Court of Appeal judgment in favour of the Home Office. The basis for the Supreme Court’s decision is that the Lord Chancellor, Chris Grayling at that time, did not have the legal power to introduce...
In a VERY interesting paper, Robert Thomas of the University of Manchester analyses the statistics on judicial review cases since they were transferred from the Administrative Court to the Upper Tribunal. He finds that the number and proportion of claims certified as “totally without merit” has increased considerably and so has...
Case on calculating annual salary under Tier 2 when the applicant is paid weekly: The effect of paragraph 14 of Appendix J to the Immigration Rules is that other than where an applicant has contracted weekly hours or is paid an hourly rate, the appropriate salary for the purposes of...
If you are planning to return from the continent with a little illicit saucisson and brie, then beware of the dogs at Manchester Airport. According to David Bolt, the independent chief inspector of Borders and Immigration, the Border Force detector dogs at Manchester ‘were making multiple detections of small amounts...
It is the immigration decision that triggers the right of appeal, not the notice of decision: Singh (No immigration decision – jurisdiction)[2013] UKUT 440 (IAC) is authority for proposition that the First-tier Tribunal has jurisdiction to hear an appeal only where there has been an immigration decision. It is not...
1. The question whether the appellant “is a persistent offender” is a question of mixed fact and law and falls to be determined by the Tribunal as at the date of the hearing before it. 2. The phrase “persistent offender” in s.117D(2)(c) of the 2002 Act must mean the same...
A student was for 20 days a total of £11.68 short of the required funds of £2,040, which were required to be held for 28 days continuously. In percentage terms, that would be a shortfall of 0.57%. Taking a hard line, President McCloskey holds: The de minimis principle is not engaged...
Periods of study for a qualification below degree level, are capable of being counted as time spent studying at degree level for the purpose of paragraph 245ZX(ha), if the period of study is taught at degree level, and when the qualification itself is added to other periods of study, resulting...
The final judgment of the court in SSHD v NA Case C‑115/15 (previously NA (Pakistan) [2015] EWCA Civ 140) will come later this year, but the Advocate General Opinion released today suggests that victims of domestic violence should retain EU law rights of residence even where the EU citizen was not exercising...
In this case the Upper Tribunal Administrative Appeals Chamber finds that the “past presence test” for Disability Living Allowance unlawfully discriminates against refugees and their families. The offending provision is “disapplied” by the tribunal. The same test is applied for Attendance Allowance, Personal Independence Payment and Carer’s Allowance, I understand....
The Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration has published his Inspection Plan for the next three years. It includes inspections on sham marriages, landlord immigration checks, NHS charging, exit checks and litigation (including Home Office Presenting Officers) in the first year. Source: The Chief Inspector releases his Inspection Plan for...
The Home Office has issued a new updated version of its policy on section 3C and 3D leave: Leave extended by section 3C (and leave extended by section 3D in transitional cases). Section 3C and 3D leave is an automatic type of leave created by an amendment to the Immigration Act...
The President has issued an important determination on the correct approach to multiple applications and appeals from family members, specifically a parent or parents and a child or children with 7 years of residence. The case is PD and Others (Article 8 : conjoined family claims) Sri Lanka [2016] UKUT 108...
David Bolt, the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, recently published a new report into the effectiveness of services that the Home Office outsources to private contractors, finding that inefficiency and lack of communication contribute to a waste of resources and time. The full report is available here: An Inspection...
Someone recently asked me whether time spent under EU law can count towards a 10 year long residence application so I thought I would flag up the answer for others as well. In short, “yes”. I would have thought there would be relatively few people who find themselves in this situation...
A High Court judge has awarded the family member of an EU national a total of £136,048 in damages. The award consists of £76,578 for false imprisonment and £59,470 for breach of EU law. The Home Office is also criticised for having made “inaccurate and misleading” submissions to previous judges...
Following the last post on FM on this, Cranston J heard argument from the Claimants on 25 and 26 February 2016 but, having done so, adjourned the hearing, on the application of the Home Office, on the grounds that the SSHD was not ready to proceed. A case management hearing...
A recent report by the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, David Bolt, revealed that the management of curtailment decisions in Tier 4 cases is inconsistent and the Home Office is unable to deal with the thousands of curtailment cases and Sponsors notifications it receives every month. You can see the...
Still no sign of the full judgment being available, just this summary and this press release from the solicitor. Summary of the summary: 8. Ultimately, the Tribunal has subjected all of the evidence to detailed and careful scrutiny. Having done so, it concludes that the Secretary of State has not...
The Government has confirmed that the Immigration Skills Charge will be set at £1,000 per year per migrant worker sponsored under Tier 2 of the Points Based System. A lower rate will apply for small businesses and charities. On 21 March 2016 in a House of Lords debate on the...
