The article deals with people claiming asylum in the UK on the basis of a well-founded fear of persecution due to their sexual orientation or gender identity (SOGI). Although the UK is a country that respects and actively promotes SOGI rights, the UK does not always provide adequate protection to...
Sounds very interesting and topical: Given-Wilson, Z., Herlihy, J., Hodes, M (2016). Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, Vol 57(4), Nov 2016, 265-273 Unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC) are separated from caregivers, have often been exposed to significant additional past and ongoing adversities, and seek protection from war, organised violence or persecution in...
According to estimates, there are 10,000-13,000 victims of modern slavery living in the UK. In order to tackle this problem, the UK government operates a Modern Slavery Strategy, and the Border Force plays its part by identifying potential victims, and ‘targeting’, ‘intercepting’ and ‘disrupting’ traffickers, primarily at the border. How...
Short version: not a lot we did not know already Long version… Yesterday, the day after MPs began the process of the UK leaving the EU, the Government published a White Paper on Brexit. The formal title is The United Kingdom’s exit from and new partnership with the European Union...
‘Patient confidentiality is one of the most important pillars of medicine’, explains Dr Vivienne Nathanson, previously Head of Science and Ethics at the British Medical Association. Can patient information be shared without consent? The general principle is that patient information is confidential and can only be disclosed to third parties...
Take Trump seriously but not literally, said Peter Thiel, Paypal founder, Gawker litigation financier and prominent Trump supporter. Well, it turns out that Trump meant what he said. Literally. Muslims will be banned, literally. The wall will be built, literally. Mexico will pay for it, literally. President Trump's press sec...
The Supreme Court ruled today by a majority of 8-3 that an Act of Parliament is needed for the UK Government to trigger Article 50 and formally begin the process of leaving the EU. Giving the leading judgment the President of the Court, Lord Neuberger, emphasised that the judgment was...
BA (Returns to Baghdad) Iraq CG [2017] UKUT 00018 (IAC). Relatively concise and focussed at only 34 pages. There is no general risk of persecution but some will be at risk, particularly anyone perceived as a collaborator with foreign coalition forces, and if so there is unlikely to be sufficient...
Short answer: yes, at least for now. Long answer… From 1 February 2017 it seems likely that it will be mandatory to use the official application forms for EEA residence document applications, either online or on paper, that are provided by the Home Office. This is a new requirement introduced...
The High Court has ruled in the case of R (On the Applications Of TN (Vietnam) & US (Pakistan)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department & Anor [2017] EWHC 59 (Admin) that over 10,000 asylum appeals had been decided under procedure rules so unfair that the determinations could...
Good briefing paper by the House of Commons library (as always!) on the end of free movement rights and what has been said so far. It also mentioned without comment the now patently false assurances of the Leave campaigners. It remains to be seen how the Government may choose to...
The Home Office has belatedly published the reports of the Independent Family Returns Panel for 2012 to 2014 and 2014 to 2016. Home Office responses have been published in parallel. Why the Home Office was withholding from publication for so long the 2012-14 report is something of a mystery. The...
Welcome to the October 2016 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This episode I start with the abortive increase in fees for immigration appeals and changes to appeals to the Court of Appeal, cover new types of online applications available and then some EU law issues, move on...
The Court of Appeal has in effect endorsed the Home Office practice of issuing “supplementary” decision letters during judicial review litigation to try and make good defects in the original refusal. The case is Caroopen & Myrie v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] EWCA Civ 1307....
Important new determination from President McCloskey on the best interests of children in human rights cases where the statutory considerations apply: Kaur (children’s best interests / public interest interface) [2017] UKUT 00014 (IAC). The official headnote: (1) The seventh of the principles in the Zoumbas code does not preclude an...
Two new Home Office policies were published today: Criminal investigations (Immigration Enforcement) Liability to administrative removal (non-EEA): consideration and notification The one on administrative removal lools particularly important. It covers categories for administrative removal (overstayers, workers in breach, etc), types of illegal entry, no evidence of lawful entry cases, liability...
EU citizens wanting to apply for proof of their right of permanent residence in the UK currently have to cut through spools of red tape. The unnecessary bureaucracy defeats some, who are wrongly being told by the Home Office that they must leave the UK after years and years of...
President McCloskey has blasted the “cavalier and unprofessional” lawyers for both claimants and the Home Office in his latest determination of Shabir Ahmed and others (sanctions for non – compliance) [2016] UKUT 00562 (IAC). The case is that of four men convicted in 2012 of child sex offences in Rotherham...
Changes since the last version of the guidance: updated to include reference to criminality and delay when considering permission to work applications improved guidance on applying for permission to work to provide clarity for claimants on what is expected updated information about the difference between working for a voluntary organisation...
The same report goes on to reveal that the Home Office is no longer even attempting to monitor the outcomes of the “papers, please” Right to Rent scheme. This is despite uncharacteristically strong criticism of this failure from David Bolt, the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, in his review...
The latest triennial review of the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) has been published by the Home Office. The organisation will not be abolished and will continue as a non departmental public body at arms length from Government. There is also a very brief Ministerial statement. The main...
Welcome to the September 2016 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This episode I start with a few EU law and process issues, cover the relevant higher court and Upper Tribunal cases for September and end with some policy updates. The material is all drawn from the September...
The President of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber of the Upper Tribunal has found that the Home Office abused its power in forcing a college to expel a student and deliberately depriving him of a statutory right of appeal. The case has now been reported as R (on the application...
I am looking to recruit a part time self employed research assistant or assistants to help with research and writing for Free Movement. Some work would be background research and likely to be uncredited. Some work would be in the form of drafts of content for the site and would...
The Home Office and Entry Clearance Officer guidance on visit visa cases has been reissued and updated. Changes are as follows: Visit visa applications from persons with Right of Abode to be refused – Page 3 Clarified that evidence is required when refusing on mandatory grounds – Page 8 Example...
Sir David Metcalf has today (5 January 2017) been named as the first Director of Labour Market Enforcement to oversee a government crackdown on exploitation in the workplace. Sir David, who was chairman of the Migration Advisory Committee until August 2016, will set the strategic priorities for the: Gangmasters and...
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has revealed that it upheld 75% of complaints made against the Home Office and Border Force last year: Incorrect decisions, delays and wrong advice are the top reasons for the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman upholding the highest proportion of complaints about the Home...
If the case of Tarakhel was considered another body blow to the Dublin system, the recent Court of Appeal case of NA (Sudan) v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] EWCA Civ 1060 has picked up the Dublin system up off the ropes for another round. The...
2016 has not been a good year for free movement the concept. Non coincidentally, it has been a busy year on Free Movement the website. The response of migrants and their families to harsh rules that would break them apart is not simply to abandon their hopes and abandon the...
On 13 December 2016, the Grand Chamber handed down its much-awaited decision in Paposhvili v Belgium (Applcn No. 41738/10). The decision: (1) clarifies, widens and provides guidance on the circumstances in which an alien suffering from a serious illness can resist removal under art 3 ECHR; and (2) gives rise...
The University of Oxford based Migration Observatory has published a new report on young migrants. It reads a little like the introductory sequence to The Six Million Dollar Man. The key points: Migrants tend to be young when they arrive, typically as young adults coming for work or study, or...
Following the narrow “yes” vote in the Early Christmas Referendum, Theresa May announced today that the United Kingdom will unilaterally change the date of Christmas in 2017. The Prime Minister stated in a speech at Santa’s Grotto inNicholsons, Maidenhead that “Christmas means Christmas” and that despite a close result she...
A new tribunal case on EU deportations. The headnote: Neither a decision to make a deportation order nor a notice of intention to make a deportation order triggers the two year period specified in regulation 24(5) of the EEA Regulations. The two year period begins upon the making of the...
A child can be at risk of persecutory harm contrary to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in circumstances where a comparably placed adult would not be at such a risk. Source: JA (child – risk of persecution : Nigeria) [2016] UKUT 560 (IAC) (24 November 2016)
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