Two immigration law practitioners, Chris Williams and Nicola Braganza, made headlines today for their part in an investigation highlighting “racial profiling” in UK immigration checks. The pair, both Garden Court tenants, worked with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism to analyse Home Office data showing that almost one in five people...
In one of his final judgments as outgoing President, Mr Justice McCloskey launched a bitter broadside at the conduct of government lawyers in long-running litigation over the entry of refugee children. While the criticism of the solicitors at the Government Legal Department and of previous barristers instructed for the Home...
If you want to look up how the Immigration Act 2016 works in practice, A Guide to the Immigration Act 2016 by Alison Harvey and Zoe Harper is the definitive guide to the legislation. More comprehensive than my own introductory ebook to the Act, Harvey and Harper dive straight into...
Welcome to the July 2017 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month I begin by running through a whole load of judgments and determinations, including from the Supreme Court on sham marriages, some cases on procedure and costs and some shocking cases on unlawful detention. I then...
Stateless people in the UK face enormous hurdles in the road to becoming British citizens. One of those barriers is the extraordinarily high cost of acquiring British citizenship, writes Asylum Aid’s Cynthia Orchard. The UK government has taken some steps to ensure its approach to statelessness complies with international law....
Ovidiu-Mihaita Petrea emigrated from Romania to Greece, ready to build a new life there. However, he made a big mistake: he committed robbery and was sentenced by a Greek criminal court in 2011. The case is C-184/16 Ovidiu-Mihăiţă Petrea v Ypourgos Esoterikon kai Dioikitikis Anasygrotisis. Exclusion order and return Article 27 of Directive...
In Secretary of State for the Home Department v KE (Nigeria) [2017] EWCA Civ 382, the Court of Appeal tackled the narrow, but important, issue as to whether a non-British citizen who is convicted and sentenced to a hospital order with restrictions under sections 37 and 41 of the Mental...
IMMIGRATION BARRISTERS AND CASEWORKERS REQUIRED UK Migration Lawyers is excited to be seeking to recruit two Immigration barristers and / or caseworkers to join its Birmingham based team on a fixed term contract. We are seeking candidates with immigration law experience who are passionate, organised, self-motivated and who want...
Welcome to the June 2017 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month I’m starting with the current UK proposals on the future status of EU citizens in the UK and a few (!) problems with those plans, covering the major Supreme Court decision on the “deport first,...
The Home Office has broken the law by failing to publish the waiting times faced by EU citizens trying to get residence documents. The Information Commissioner ruled that Amber Rudd’s department is in breach of the Freedom of Information Act, having sat on the request for seven months and counting....
The Right Honourable Sir Ernest Ryder, The Senior President of Tribunals has appointed Sir Peter Lane to be the Chamber President for the Upper Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber with effect from 2 October 2017. This is the first “internal” appointment of an immigration tribunal judge to the top immigration...
“Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear.” This was the introductory paragraph of Upper Tribunal Judge Wikeley in AF v SSWP (DLA) (No.2) [2017] UKUT 366 (AAC). When a judge expresses himself in this manner – and when the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions supports all three grounds of...
The fourth round of Brexit negotiations are over, with some signs of progress on the future status of EU citizens living in the UK. At the end of August, the EU-UK joint comparison of negotiating positions on citizens’ rights showed some 30 issues highlighted in red, indicating no agreement. This...
In the very recent case of Arranz (EEA Regulations – deportation – test) [2017] UKUT 294 (IAC) President McCloskey set out the correct approach to EU law deportations. The official headnote instructs us: (i) The burden of proving that a person represents a genuine, present and sufficiently threat affecting one...
Three judges of the Upper Tribunal have examined 13 separate decisions of the same First-tier Tribunal judge and found them “wholly failing to meet the standards that are demanded by the office of a judge and expected by the parties”. The unreported judgment in AA069062014 & Ors. [2017] UKAITUR AA069062014...
Campaign group the3million has issued a statement on the latest plans for settled status following a meeting with the Home Office. Some clarifications were made during a meeting between the Home Office and the3million regarding some false information circulating around the future criteria required for all of us after Brexit...
Banks and building societies are to carry out immigration checks on a reported 70 million bank accounts in accordance with the Immigration Act 2016, amending the Immigration Act 2014. The provision ordering this will come into force on 30 October 2017. Regulations introducing a code of practice have been laid...
Theresa May exercised her free movement rights with a trip to Florence on Friday to deliver a much-anticipated speech on Brexit. Conciliatory in tone and significant on the question of the ‘divorce bill’, the Prime Minister’s comments also touched on the rights of EU citizens in the UK, and on...
I am delighted to announce the appointment of Conor James McKinney as Deputy Editor for Free Movement. CJ, as he prefers to be known, joins Free Movement with a strong background in legal journalism and communication. He has written on legal affairs for the Times, the i, the Evening Standard...
The Home Office has launched a new Assisted Digital service to help those who need it with online immigration applications. It is aimed at applicants who do not have the appropriate access, skills or confidence to complete an online immigration application form. The service does not offer immigration advice. The...
Not much to say about this one, but clearly it is important in those cases where the Home Office does withdraw a decision once the appeal has been lodged. Official headnote: (i) The public law character of appeals to the FtT is reflected in the regulatory requirement governing the withdrawal...
The facts of R (on the application of MMK) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (consent orders – legal effect – enforcement) [2017] UKUT 198 (IAC) involved the not uncommon scenario of the Home Office withdrawing its decision in response to an application for judicial review, agreeing a...
In Sleiman (deprivation of citizenship; conduct) [2017] UKUT 367 (IAC) the tribunal considered the question of how directly causative past deception must be of a subsequent grant of British citizenship in order for a person to be deprived of that citizenship on the basis of deception. The official headnote: In...
Pretty obscure looking at first glance, this one: TM (EEA nationals – meaning; NI practitioners : Zimbabwe) [2017] UKUT 165 (IAC). So much so I confess I overlooked it. Firstly, some dual national British-EEA nationals were protected from the UK’s arguably over zealous implementation of McCarthy. I’ve had to advise...
The Home Office has been in the news for what one judge described as a “prima facie case of contempt of court.” Officials are reported to have breached multiple orders for the return of asylum seeker Samim Bigzad from Afghanistan to the United Kingdom. Ultimately, though, in legal terms it...
With the approach of Brexit, managers at the Home Office are re-asserting traditional English facial grooming standards, it seems: Britain’s immigration officers have been told they are not allowed to sport stubble at work. Dress code guidance published by the Home Office on Tuesday advised staff that an “unshaven or...
Yes, “residence” is the same as “presence”, at least in paragraph 245AAA(a) of the Immigration Rules, says Upper Tribunal Judge Allen. Official headnote: (i) On a proper construction of paragraph 245AAA(a)(i) of HC 395, an absence from the United Kingdom for a period of more than 180 days in one...
Practitioners commonly rely on the “integration test” in the Immigration Rules to resist an individual’s removal on human rights grounds. The current rules can in some circumstances require a consideration of whether there would be “very significant obstacles” to an individual’s re-integration in that country if they were to be...
The recently leaked government immigration proposals indicate that European nationals who commit crime in the UK will be subject to the same automatic deportation rules as non-European nationals after Brexit. The UK Borders Act 2007 imposes a legal duty on the Home Office to bring deportation proceedings against any foreign...
Last week was Glasgow Brexitcon (don’t worry, no-one but me is calling it that), a whole day conference in Glasgow dedicated to the immigration aspects of Brexit. The idea and organisation was all the work of the wonderful Bilaal Shabbir of MBS Solicitors, who first suggested it on the Free...
Brian White, abandoned as a baby, lived in a Zimbabwean orphanage until the age of six. He was fostered, and later adopted, by the White family in Wolverhampton. He came to the UK to join the family when he was 15, at which point he should have been granted Indefinite...
What are the immigration rules for footballers from outside the EU? And what rules will apply to footballer transfers from abroad after Brexit? Here we look at the immigration aspects of football transfers using the recent successful but fraught transfer of Serge Aurier from Paris Saint-Germain to Tottenham Hotspur. Aurier...
Forget “hard Brexit” and “soft Brexit”. The leaked proposals for a post-Brexit immigration system suggest the pedal is already to the metal for full Thelma & Louise Brexit. The Brexit to-do list is the length of a constantly unravelling ball of string. One of the many items on that list...
Panorama, Undercover: Britain’s Immigration Secrets is required viewing for anyone interested in immigration in the UK. It is also deeply uncomfortable viewing. It documents an undercover investigation into Brook House, one of the UK’s 13 Immigration Removal Centres. The episode shows detainees subjected to severe violence, taunting, and mistreatment. A...
The latest of what seems a neverending series reports of abuse of detainees in immigration removal centres has come to light. BBC Panorama took undercover footage at Brook House and uncovered the following, amongst other evidence of chaos and incompetence: G4S officers assaulting, abusing and mocking detainees; Asylum seekers being...
