This announcement is being reported differently in different outlets. The actual text of the announcement so far (a Ministerial statement will follow later today) is as below. There is a clear reference to reuniting children in Europe with refugee family members already in the UK, which is very much to...
Over the last two weeks a local group, with ever mounting, incredible support from so many through word of mouth and social media, raised funds and collected priority items to take to the Calais ‘Jungle’ and Dunkirk camp. We filled 3 large vans and a car with men’s clothes, blankets,...
Home Office rejects trafficking claim on basis that the claim was delayed and the account was inconsistent. Decision ruled unlawful for failure to follow Home Office’s own guidance on trafficking claims, which points out that there may be valid reasons why a genuine victim of trafficking is inconsistent in giving...
A Polish man detained in immigration detention for three years while his appeal dragged on and on was found not to have been unlawfully detained. Apart from anything else the case illustrates the excessively leisurely pace of immigration appeals, particularly in the Upper Tribunal in this instance. Source: Machnikowski v...
A Tier 4 student prohibited from working was accused of the Home Office of breach of his conditions of leave by taking part time employment. A decision was taken to remove him under the pre-Immigration Act 2014 version of section 10 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. he was served...
This is an interesting case in which an entry clearance application by an elderly relative was refused by the ECO but the appeal allowed on human rights grounds by a First-tier Tribunal judge, whose decision is here upheld by President McCloskey. It is also interesting because it sounds like an...
A national of Kazakhstan applied for an extension of stay as a Tier 4 student. As a national of that country, he was required by the Immigration Rules to register with the police. His application was rejected by the Home Office as invalid on the basis that he was also...
Several news outlets are reporting this morning that the Dublin III Regulation is likely to be scrapped by the Commission in March. It may be that Peter Sutherland, the UN Special Representative on Migration, was right when he said last year that the Regulation was “dead”. If it is dead...
The Migration Advisory Commitee (MAC to its friends) has today published its report into how to tighten the Tier 2 skilled migrant route so as to reduce non EU migration. In 2014 there were 52,478 main applicants granted new visas to enter or remain in the UK under Tier 2. Of...
Potentially useful fresh asylum claim decision holding that two Ahmadi siblings from Pakistan had a realistic prospect of success before a judge on the basis of new evidence from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association of the United Kingdom about their activities in the UK since their original asylum appeal has been...
In the case of Rosa v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] EWCA Civ 14 the Court of Appeal has again ruled that in EU free movement law cases, the burden for proving a marriage is a marriage of convenience rests with the Home Office: In my judgment, the legal...
In 2014 the Home Office amended the UK’s rules on EU law deportation cases to allow a deportation to go ahead before an EEA national completes any appeal process against that decision to deport. This has become known as “deport first, appeal later”. Similar rules were also introduced for non...
The Law Society’s Immigration Law Committee has put together an excellent and comprehensive practice note on immigration judicial review practice, procedure and conduct issues. It is aimed at: All practitioners bringing immigration judicial review claims on behalf of claimants before the Administrative Court in England and Wales (High Court) and...
Official headnote to R (on the application of RK) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (s.117B(6); “parental relationship” (IJR) [2016] UKUT 31 (IAC): 1. It is not necessary for an individual to have “parental responsibility” in law for there to exist a parental relationship. 2. Whether a person who...
In another reminder that British citizenship can be refused on the basis of past dishonest conduct we have the case of R (on the application of Rushiti & Anor) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2014] EWHC 3931 (Admin). This one dates back a few months but I’m afraid...
The review by Stephen Shaw into the welfare in immigration detention of vulnerable persons has been published today. The Government has responded stating that it “accepts the broad thrust of his recommendations” and that the Home Office expects its reforms to reduce the number of those detained and the duration of detention before...
Hat tip to colleague Amanda Weston for this one. In The Government of the United States of America v Giese [2015] EWHC 2733 (Admin) (07 October 2015) the High Court found in an extradition case that the “civil commitment” system operated by California in respect of sexual offenders who have served their...
The official new proposals by Lord Justice Briggs for an online lawyer-free court for claims of up to £25,000 certainly make interesting reading: There is a clear and pressing need to create an Online Court for claims up to £25,000 designed for the first time to give litigants effective access to...
Three recent cases on fair hearings in immigration cases, all from President McCloskey. All make interesting reading. Firstly, the headnote from AM (fair hearing) Sudan [2015] UKUT 656 (IAC): (i) Independent judicial research is inappropriate. It is not for the judge to assemble evidence. Rather, it is the duty of...
The case of Huang & Ors, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (“No Time Limit” Transfer: Fraud) (IJR) [2015] UKUT 662 (IAC) arises from the provision of false or incorrect identity information by asylum seekers who were initially refused asylum but who were...
Official headnote to AB (para 399(a)) [2015] UKUT 657 (IAC) (20 November 2015): Head note 3 of the Upper Tribunal’s decision in Ogundimu (Article 8 – new rules) Nigeria [2013] UKUT 60 (IAC) applies to the version of para 399(a) of the Immigration Rules that was in force as at 27 July 2014. It does […]
...A DIY approach is difficult in immigration law. Hardly a year goes by without the higher courts complaining about “a degree of complexity which even the Byzantine emperors would have envied” [as lamented by Jackson LJ in 2013]. This is even more of a problem as legal aid is removed...
I am starting to detect subtle* signs that the Upper Tribunal is unimpressed by attempts to litigate ETS cases from within the UK. These are the cases where a person stands accused (on unknown, undisclosed evidence) of cheating in English language tests administered by the company Educational Testing Services. In many...
First of all, the official headnote to Muhandiramge (section S-LTR.1.7) [2015] UKUT 675 (IAC) (20 November 2015): Where an application for leave to remain in the United Kingdom is refused under Section S-LTR.1.7 of Appendix FM of the Immigration Rules on the ground of the Applicant’s failure without reasonable excuse...
Another illuminating headnote from the Upper Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber reporting committee: (i) The requirements in para 399(b) are conjunctive. Accordingly, the correct approach is to consider para 399(b)(i) before the requirements in para 399(b)(ii) and (iii). If para 399(b)(i) is not satisfied, there is no need to consider the...
In Secretary of State for the Home Department v Straszewski [2015] EWCA Civ 1245 (03 December 2015) Moore-Bick LJ, giving the leading judgment, finds that public revulsion is not generally relevant to decisions to deport under EU law. The facts Two cases were linked for the purposes of this judgment. The first...
On 10 December 2015, just very shortly before the referral of two solicitors to the Solicitor Regulation Authority by the Court of Appeal in Re Shabani [2015] EWCA Crim 1924 (22 July 2015 but only published late in 2015), the Law Society issued a new practice note on Statutory defences...
IMMIGRATION APPEALS AND REMEDIES HANDBOOK By Mark Symes and Peter Jorro (Bloomsbury, 2015) (£37.40) When the President of the Upper Tribunal, Immigration and Asylum Chamber writes a foreword, and the foreword concludes with the words “This is…. a compulsory addition to the library of every immigration judge and practitioner” one...
The press is reporting today that Abdul Haroun, who walked the length of the Channel Tunnel to claim asylum in the UK, has been recognised as a refugee, has finally been granted bail (he has been detained since his entry in August) and the Crown Prosecution Service is considering whether to...
Page contentsHere on Free MovementImmigration law in 2015Immigration Act 2014Detained Fast TrackThe SupremesBig pictureLooking ahead to 2016The numbers gameNew asylum planHostile environment Here on Free Movement Here on Free Movement the year 2015 was the blog’s biggest so far, with 1,600,000 page views from 660,000 visitors. The total number of page views...
Christmas gift guide edition Is the ebook edition of Phelan and Gillespie’s Immigration Law Handbook (9th edition) the ideal Christmas gift for the immigration lawyer you have the misfortune of loving or being related to? With only two days to go, it isn’t too late to order the ebook edition, which possesses...
As was reported on Free Movement last month, the British Nationality (General) (Amendment No. 3) Regulations 2015, have made it harder for persons with an EU law-based right of permanent residence to naturalise as British citizens. That is the consequence of a new requirement that such persons first obtain a...
With many thanks to the excellent and eagle-eyed Tim Buley of Landmark Chambers, this post covers the procedural protections against costs orders for legally aided and other litigants in the Upper Tribunal. This is a major issue in judicial review proceedings in the Upper Tribunal; no-one who has been following...
Today is International Migrants Day. The IOM (International Organisation for Migration) keeps track of the dead washing up on the shores of Europe with their Missing Migrants Project. So far this year 3,671 have drowned on the edges of Europe. 5,086 have died worldwide. The ever rising death toll is clearly...
Welcome to the November 2015 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. In this episode I talk a little about the latest immigration statistics, some rule changes on EU nationals applying for British nationality and the latest batch of immigration rule changes, I do a quick review of Upper...
President McCloskey certainly isn’t wrong when he says of the immigration rules on human rights introduced in 2012: These provisions of the Rules have generated much jurisprudence during the last two years. In this latest contribution to that ever growing jurisprudential midden, Treebhawon and others (section 117B(6)) [2015] UKUT 674 (IAC), the...
The child, born in the United Kingdom, of a foreign national, who seeks to be recognised as stateless, but who can under the law of the parent’s nationality, obtain citizenship of that country by descent by registering their birth, may properly be regarded as admissible to that country , as...
A failure to comply with the Senior President’s Practice Direction may affect the weight to be given to expert evidence. Any opinion offered that is unsupported by a demonstration of the objectivity and comprehensive review of material facts required of an expert witness is likely to be afforded little weight...
Official headnote: A decision to certify a person’s (P’s) removal under regulation 24AA of the European Economic Area Regulations 2006 operates as a temporary measure that can be applied only for so long as there is a statutory appeal which could be brought in time or which is pending. Regulation...
