Anthony Metzer QC led Sanaz Saifolahi, on behalf of the Respondent, before the President of the Upper Tribunal, Mr Justice McCloskey, on the application of the Surinder Singh rationale to the unmarried partner of a British National. There are currently no reported cases on this issue. The Respondent is in...
In a written Parliamentary answer yesterday the Government stated self sufficient or studying EU citizens without comprehensive sickness insurance (CSI) are “not lawfully resident” in the UK and “may be liable for removal” but that it is “longstanding Home Office practice” not to seek removal because “it is relatively straight...
Official headnote: A proper reading of the Upper Tribunal’s decision in AA (Article 15(c)) Iraq CG [2015] UKUT 544 (IAC) reveals the importance of making findings of fact regarding P’s circumstances, in order properly to apply the country guidance in that case. A finding that P cannot currently be returned,...
This is hugely overdue – what on earth took the Home Office so long to get moving on this? However belated, though, it is good news. And the positions are reported to be permanent, perhaps suggesting some recognition by the Home Office of the massive increased demand that hard Brexit...
The Helen Bamber Foundation is renowned for its work with refugees and asylum seekers who have experienced torture, human trafficking and other forms of extreme human cruelty. We are looking for an experienced legal expert to provide direction to the Legal Protection and Medico-Legal Services of the Foundation, and to...
The Court of Appeal has held that the Upper Tribunal has been wrong all along about proxy marriages and EU law. The case is Awuku v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] EWCA Civ 178 and it overrules the earlier tribunal cases of Kareem (Proxy Marriages – EU...
Al Chodor and Others (C-528/15) In a highly significant judgment the CJEU has shown, in effect, that the Home Office has unlawfully detained hundreds or even thousands of individuals seeking international protection. The background facts The Al Chodor family are Iraqi nationals. They travelled to the Czech Republic and were subject...
In a Ministerial Statement made today, Home Secretary Amber Rudd has announced that Syrian refugees resettled to the UK will formally be recognised as refugees rather than been granted the lesser status of “humanitarian protection”: The decision to grant Humanitarian Protection was the right one at that time. However, while...
Welcome to the December 2016 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This episode I start with the some material on asylum and human rights issues, including perhaps the most important human rights case of 2016, talk about a few family immigration issues, cover two interesting reports on the...
There is supposed to be a fundamental difference between custodial incarceration and immigration detention. The former is reserved for those who have committed crimes: its purpose is punitive, to protect the public and to rehabilitate offenders. The latter, however, is meant to be administrative: a stepping stone for those who...
In the case of R (on the application of Akturk) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] EWHC 297 (Admin) a Turkish wannabe window cleaner entered the UK as a visitor and then applied for leave to remain to establish his window cleaning business under the 1973 Immigration...
K2 v the United Kingdom (Application No 42387/13) The use of the Home Secretary’s power to strip a British citizen of their citizenship is on the rise. It has been the subject of debate where its use has rendered a person stateless following a series cases in the higher courts...
Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules HC 1078 was laid yesterday, 16 March 2017. It weighs in at 269 pages. Despite that, there was no space for any implementation of the MM judgment. The main headline changes are: Period of overstay before 12 month re-entry ban imposed reduced from 90...
Not exactly a pithy title but looks interesting from ECRE: The study intends to examine the extent of implementation of asylum-related judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union (hereinafter ‘the CJEU’) and their impact on relevant asylum policies across the EU. It also looks at the role...
“The Tribunal’s conclusion was… that [in order to fabricate an asylum claim] the appellant had allowed himself to be anaesthetised and then branded with a hot metal rod” – Elias LJ, KV (Sri Lanka) In this area of law, it is sometimes hard to live with the reality of what...
In R (on the application of Iqbal) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] EWHC 79 (Admin) the Secretary of State for the Home Department (SSHD) was found to have unlawfully detained a claimant whom they had alleged had fraudulently obtained an Educational Test Service (ETS) certificate to...
Looks very interesting and potentially useful for evidence-based judging of these complex cases. With thanks to colleague Louise Hooper for flagging it up. The Case Digest has analysed 135 cases from 31 jurisdictions. It benefited from the input from experts from all parts of the globe. Trafficking in persons is...
Very interesting and detailed reflections on the MM case in the Supreme Court on the spouse minimum income rule. Family and spousal migration is only one part of migration policy, and there is the broader issue of what values migration policy should serve generally. In recent political argument in the...
The Home Office has announced a new policy of reviewing whether all refugees require protection at the end of a five year initial period of leave. The policy appears to be effective immediately for all refugee settlement applications, including for refugees already resident in the UK and who were expecting...
Official headnote: 1. At the current time it is not reasonably likely that a draft-evader avoiding conscription or mobilisation in Ukraine would face criminal or administrative proceedings for that act, although if a draft-evader did face prosecution proceedings the Criminal Code of Ukraine does provide, in Articles 335, 336 and...
C-573/14 Lounani (Grand Chamber, 31st January 2017) A person applying for protection under the 1951 Refugee Convention can be excluded from its provisions under certain circumstances. As the Court of Justice of the European Union explained in B and D in 2010, these circumstances include those guilty of committing terrorist...
Well worth a read. This practice note seeks to: clarify the status of legal professional privilege (LPP) explore recent concerns about how the right has been asserted summarise practitioners’ duties clarify the main principles of LPP LPP protects all communications between a solicitor or barrister and his or her clients...
Being female does not on its own establish a need for international protection. In general, the level of violence and discrimination against women in Egypt will not in most cases amount to a real risk of persecution or serious harm. The onus is on the woman (or girl) to demonstrate...
The Supreme Court has granted permission to appeal against the Court of Appeal case of R.(On the Application of Hysaj) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2015] EWCA Civ 1195. On 27 February 2017, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom granted permission to the appellants, as to the...
“EU citizens will not be removed from the UK or refused entry solely because they do not have comprehensive sickness insurance,” said a spokesman. Very welcome news but it is difficult to understand the Home Office’s legal position on all this. They are categorically NOT saying that they will recognise...
Official (rather terse) headnote: The deportation of a former Malaysian national and former BOC is liable to be deemed unlawful where relevant Government Policies relating to inter-state arrangements with Malaysia have not been taken into account or given effect. I’ve got some sympathy for the Home Office on this one....
The Solicitor Disciplinary Tribunal has fined an immigration solicitor £10,000 for signing off “grossly misleading and inaccurate” statements of truth for judicial review applications. The solicitor concerned, Achyuth Rajagopal of G Singh Solicitors in London, admitted acting recklessly and in a manner apt to mislead the tribunal and failing adequately...
“Two visas had been rejected … I was wrenched by a heavy feeling of humiliation…trying to prove that I’m a “normal person” like any Englishman, that I’m not aspiring to swap my career in Egypt as a cartoonist [and] scriptwriter … for British social welfare, that I really want to...
This Commons Library briefings looks at the Government’s work to resettle up to 20,000 Syrian refugees in the UK by the end of this Parliament, under its Syrian Vulnerable Person Resettlement Programme. It has also committed itself to resettling up to 3,000 vulnerable children currently in the Middle East and...
Worth a read, and I’m not just saying that because I’m quoted: Britain is the only European country to allow indefinite detention under immigration laws. Some of those held are migrants who have committed crimes but cannot be removed, because their home countries are too dangerous. But of those detained...
In this case an asylum seeker asserted he was a child. The local authority treated him as an adult while his age was assessed, contrary to the Age Assessment Guidance by the Association of Directors of Children’s Services. No cogent reason was given for departing from the guidance and the...
Official headnote to Lama (video recorded evidence -weight – Art 8 ECHR : Nepal) [2017] UKUT 16 (IAC): (i) Video recorded evidence from witnesses is admissible in the Upper Tribunal. Its weight will vary according to the context. (ii) Alertness among practitioners and parties to the Upper Tribunal’s standard pre-hearing...
Very interesting if depressing read: Last September, SubScribe looked at the prevalence and tone of anti-immigration stories produced by Fleet Street, accompanied by a bar chart of front pages. At the time there were 195. By the end of the year, there were 277, with more than half coming from...
Source: Criminality guidance in article 8 ECHR cases – GOV.UK The change log says: Additional sections to reflect the Supreme Court judgment in Hesham Ali (Iraq) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] and the European Court of Justice judgement in Ruiz Zambrano (European citizenship) [2011] ECJ C-34/09....
Lord Justice Irwin gives the leading judgment in UB (Sri Lanka) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] EWCA Civ 85, in which the Home Office failed to serve a relevant policy document during an appeal: 16. In my view there was the clearest obligation on the Secretary...
