The Home Office has updated its “Allocation of asylum accommodation” guidance so that a list of people who were previously excluded from the Bibby Stockholm, Napier and the other ex-Ministry of Defence sites and from having to share a bedroom, can now be accommodated in these places. The euphemism being...
Legal reform charity JUSTICE has published a report today from their EUSS working group that looks at the ongoing problems with the EU settlement scheme and makes 16 recommendations. The report commends the scheme as being largely successful and for processing a huge number of applications in a relatively short...
The High Court has dismissed and certified as totally without merit an appeal brought by an immigration solicitor against the decision to strike him off the roll, after finding him guilty of dishonest conduct in his dealings with an undercover journalist in 2017. The case is Salam v Solicitors Regulation...
As the government’s Rwanda plan continues to court controversy, there is one area of their policy which by their measures could be seen to be succeeding: their efforts to stop Albanians from seeking refuge in the UK. Since 2019, the Migrant and Refugee Children’s Legal Unit at Islington Law Centre...
Closing Date: 25 March 2024 at 23:00 Hours: Full time Location: The position is based at UNHCR London ‘s offices near Chancery Lane Starting Salary: London – £43,440 – £59,000 depending on education and experience. Not subject to income tax but subject to NI deductions. Nature of Position: Under the...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! Apparently since 7 October 2023 every entry clearance application made from Gaza has been rejected by the Home Office. That was the position up to the date of disclosure in this judicial review by a Palestinian refugee trying to bring his family to the UK, and there is no reason to...
Three months after first announcing it, the Home Secretary has officially asked the Migration Advisory Committee to carry out a review of the Graduate immigration route. The letter from the Home Secretary to the Chair of the committee said that the review may cover the following areas: As we have...
This was the central question which arose in the context of an unlawful detention claim, initially dismissed by the High Court in Johnson v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWHC 3120 (KB) and then again in the recently reported appeal in Johnson v Secretary of State for...
On the same day that The Bureau of Investigative Journalism published an article on how the visa system prevents care workers from reporting abuse, a new report by several academics and NGOs has been published “UK agriculture and care visas: worker exploitation and obstacles to redress”. The report looks at...
Your February roundup is here as promised. Colin and I discuss Shamima Begum’s latest appeal, the pause on some asylum cases, a run of decisions involving poor conduct on the part of either the Tribunals or the Home Office, as well as corporate transactions, the sudden closure of the Ukraine...
A guidance change made in July 2023 is affecting the ability of the new-born babies of refugees to obtain refugee status. This is an issue that affects a limited group of people, namely those who have been granted refugee leave for five years, and have a child born in the...
Closing Date: 24 March 2024 Contract: Permanent – Job share Hours: 21 hours per week Location: Any centre – London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Newcastle Starting Salary: London – £66,461 – £77,095 per annum including London Weighting (21 hours £39,876 – £46,257) Outside London £62,446 – £72,437 per annum (21 hours...
This is another successful challenge from a former Afghan judge who was unlawfully excluded from the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy scheme (ARAP). The case is MP1, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for Defence [2024] EWHC 410 (Admin). Background MP1 worked as a criminal defence lawyer...
This is our write up of the first of the Home Secretary’s recent dump of the much delayed reports from the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration. The one point I will make from the outset is that anyone who is working on Albanian claims should read the relevant...
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Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! It was Frantic Maths Day on Thursday and while in the midst of it all I went to look at my write up of the last statistics release from November last year. It was quite a jolt to see that I had written there that two people had...
Kalayaan, a small but mighty charity that works to provide advice, advocacy and support services in the UK for migrant domestic workers have recently updated their 2023 report on the state of the system for identifying victims of modern slavery, with 2024’s National Referral Mechanism: Near Breaking Point. The particular...
In FGF v Secretary of State for the Home Department, Appeal No: SN/01/2022 the Special Immigration Appeals Commission has concluded that it has the power to award costs in reviews, in certain circumstances. Background FGF applied for naturalisation as a British citizen on 27 January 2020. The Home Secretary refused...
A few days before the two-year anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the UK government announced a series of sweeping changes to the Ukraine schemes, giving just four hours’ notice of their implementation. Among the most significant changes are the closure of the Ukraine Family Scheme, and a new...
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,...
Following a request from the Chairs of the Public Accounts and Home Affairs Committees, the National Audit Office has published a report on the costs to date of setting up the Migration and Economic Development Partnership with Rwanda. The report also looks at the basis on which future costs would...
The latest immigration and asylum statistics have been published today. We have highlighted some of the interesting data below on asylum, EU Settlement Scheme, fee waivers and student and work routes. Asylum As many have been predicting for a while now, the asylum grant rate has dropped substantially in the...
The Court of Appeal has gone to town on a First-tier Tribunal decision for the second time in as many weeks, this time allowing an appeal in an asylum claim from an Iranian national. The case is FA (Iran) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWCA Civ...
Vacancies: Paralegals/ Caseworkers We are looking to take on up to four immigration paralegals/caseworkers to join the fee earning team at Luqmani Thompson. This offer is for a fixed 12-month contract and is subject to a 3-month probationary period. The role is office based. We offer a competitive salary (£23,000...
The Upper Tribunal has confirmed that the Home Secretary’s “Discretionary Leave” guidance, version 10, published on 16 March 2023 is unlawful to the extent that it excludes victims of trafficking who had been accepted by the Home Office to be a victim before 30 January 2023 and had, before that...
Last week we published a briefing on the legal changes to the criminalisation of people seeking asylum in the UK and a new report “No Such Thing as Justice Here” looks at the impact these changes have had in practice. The report is published by the Centre for Criminology at the...
First of all, a huge thank you and congratulations to all those who worked so hard on their responses to the Review of Civil Legal Aid call for evidence, which closed last week. I promise this isn’t one of those situations where I am subtly trying to communicate that I’ve...
Colin and I have rounded up January 2024. We cover the government’s claims to have cleared the ‘legacy’ asylum backlog and look at the three backlogs that have replaced it. We discuss the latest in an increasingly long list of cases in which the Home Office has behaved poorly. Also...
The Migration Advisory Committee has completed the rapid review of the shortage occupation list that it was commissioned to carry out in late January and has recommended that 21 occupations are included on the new immigration salary list. The government has already announced that a statement of changes will be...
The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal from Shamima Begum challenging the Special Immigration Appeals Commission’s decision that the deprivation of her British citizenship was lawful. I recommend reading Colin’s write up of that SIAC decision. This decision is Begum v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024]...
JOB TITLE: Immigration, Asylum & Protection Caseworker (Asylum Aid) LOCATION: Asylum Aid Office (London) RESPONSIBLE TO: Immigration Supervisor CONTRACT: Permanent, full time (37.5 hours) SALARY: £34,000 p.a. BENEFITS: 27 days holiday plus 4% matched pension contribution START DATE: April 2024 or as soon as possible thereafter ABOUT ASYLUM AID...
In the latest case challenging a decision made under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy, the High Court has quashed the refusal decision on the basis that it was not supported by the evidence that had been provided in support of the application. The case is R (MA) v Secretary...
Although now largely eclipsed by the Illegal Migration Act 2023, the Nationality and Borders Act 2022’s legacy will be its criminalisation of the act of seeking asylum in the UK. This article aims to give an overview of the changes to the law. Entry vs arrival By way of background,...
We previously covered the High Court’s decision that routine redactions of junior civil servants’ names in judicial review disclosure was unlawful, and the Court of Appeal has now agreed with that in R (IAB and others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department and Secretary of State for Levelling...
Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! The Home Office has announced that Ukrainians who are here under one of the existing schemes will be “permitted to extend their visa”. This process will require an application, and that process will only open early next year. In the meantime, people will continue to...
While not natural bedfellows, business immigration lawyers are finding themselves increasingly immersed in the world of corporate transactions, thanks to the rise in the number of businesses holding sponsor licences. An important principle of sponsorship is that a sponsor licence is not transferable. This means that it is given to...
As trailed previously, a statement of changes has been published today removing the rights of care workers to bring dependants to the UK. What was not mentioned in advance was that this statement of changes would also close the Ukraine Family Scheme with immediate effect (from 3pm 19 February 2024),...
Since 31 January 2024, victims of transnational marriage abandonment can apply for a visa to return to the UK. This follows the landmark case of R on the application of AM v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWHC 2591 (Admin). This post looks at how to make...
We are looking for an experienced Immigration Solicitor. This is an opportunity to join a highly successful, creative and dynamic immigration team. Islington Law Centre has a much-respected Immigration Team. We are a category 1 Legal Aid Immigration provider and we have considerable experience across the range of immigration work...
The Home Office has made changes to the Destitute Domestic Violence Concession by publishing new guidance and a new application form today. There is a new acronym for practitioners to learn as the concession has been re-branded as the Migrant Victims of Domestic Abuse Concession (MVDAC). The big change is...
