The Home Secretary has succeeded in an appeal to the Court of Appeal where the First-tier Tribunal’s decision was overturned for a failure to provide
The Upper Tribunal has recently dismissed a judicial review action involving a Turkish Kurdish family who were separated when attempting to cross the Channel. Before
The High Court has dismissed an appeal by the Home Secretary against an award of damages to a refugee in the amount of £98,757.04 in
There have been some important additions to pages 50 and 51 of the Good Character guidance (a comparison of the new and old versions is
Once the Home Secretary concludes that a refugee is a danger to national security she is entitled to revoke his refugee status. She does not
The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill has landed, along with a written statement from the Home Secretary. The Bill weighs in at 57 clauses
The Home Office has recently updated its guidance on the streamlined process for children’s asylum applications. This policy was initially introduced to help with the
Appendix Statelessness replaced Part 14 of the immigration rules in January 2024. It provides a pathway for stateless people to obtain leave to remain in
The Home Office has settled the judicial review claims that seek an independent Article 3 ECHR compliant inquiry into events at Manston in 2022. The
A mother and her severely disabled child have been successful in obtaining a mandatory order for the Home Office to provide them with suitable accommodation
The Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland has dismissed an appeal challenging refusal of Schedule 10 accommodation on the grounds that the applicant did not
What should happen where young children are carried in a small boat to the United Kingdom and thereby separated from their parents in France? Should the
In order to access legal aid, a difficult enough feat as it is, people need to provide evidence of their financial situation. For most of
After the ban on grants of leave to those in the inadmissibility process was lifted following the change in government earlier this year, there has
An appeal against the refusal of an asylum claim made by an Iranian man who sought to rely on his attendance at protests in the
A fifth decision on the same application made under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy has just been quashed on the grounds of unfairness, meaning
In November 2024 there was a significant development in relation to the plight of around 64 people stranded on Diego Garcia, as the Home Secretary
The statistics for the period July to September 2024 have been published today, showing a very large drop in health and care worker visas, a
In M.I. v. Switzerland – 56390/21 (Article 3 – Prohibition of torture : Third Section) [2024] ECHR 862 the European Court of Human Rights has
Statement of changes HC 334 has been published today stating that the concession allowing Ukrainians to travel to the UK without the need to enrol
Don’t say I didn’t warn you with that headline. The Upper Tribunal has found that the First-tier Tribunal erred in failing make a finding on
The quarterly trafficking statistics for July to September 2024 have been published, with a few records set including for the number of referrals and number
The High Court has held that an unlawfully withdrawn asylum claim can amount to exceptional circumstances meaning that an extension of time should be granted
Asylum seekers who would otherwise face destitution must rely upon support from the government. This support is limited to either £8.86 a week if their
Your client has (at last) got a date for their asylum interview. What could possibly go wrong? Quite a lot really, and so below I
The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration has published a report on “An inspection of contingency asylum accommodation November 2023 – June 2024” highlighting
The Law Society is launching its latest round of reaccreditations for senior caseworkers and supervising senior caseworkers in immigration law. Here we take a look
The Supreme Court has held that express reference to the Home Secretary’s guidance on her duty under section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration
In a decision on an interim relief application in an age assessment judicial review, the Administrative Court has reiterated the requirements of the Civil Procedure
Internal and cross-border climate and disaster displacement are not under-studied fields. An abundance of research spanning decades depicts a clear global map of the intersecting
Spain has been ordered by the European Court of Human Rights to pay a Nigerian woman €15,000 in damages as compensation for failures relating to
The High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland has dismissed a judicial review alleging a breach of article 8 of the European Convention of Human
In this post, we will look at who is eligible to apply under Appendix Child staying with or joining a Non-Parent Relative (Protection), what the
The Upper Tribunal has given useful guidance on when such grants can be made to non-Afghan nationals as well as setting out a summary of
New figures published today show the asylum appeals backlog had risen to 33,227 cases at the end of June 2024, under the last government. In
The report into the Rwanda country policy and information notes by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration has finally been published. The Rwanda
A new commentary by Asylos, in partnership with Rainbow Migration, has considered the Home Office’s country policy and information note on sexual orientation and gender
The autumn statement of changes HC 217 has been published, accompanied by a written statement from Seema Malhotra MP, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for
Anecdotal evidence of a recent increase in Afghan asylum refusals, along with publication of two updated country policy and information notes suggests that the Home
The Commissioner of the British Indian Ocean Territory has unsuccessfully appealed a grant of bail allowing the small group of people seeking asylum on Diego
The Home Secretary has succeeded in an appeal to the Court of Appeal where the First-tier Tribunal’s decision was overturned for a failure to provide sufficient reasons for departing from a country guidance case, only for the Upper Tribunal to then fall into the same error. The case is Secretary...
The Upper Tribunal has recently dismissed a judicial review action involving a Turkish Kurdish family who were separated when attempting to cross the Channel. Before you continue reading this, I would recommend reading Colin’s excellent article on the interim order decision by the Court of Appeal, where he sets out...
The High Court has dismissed an appeal by the Home Secretary against an award of damages to a refugee in the amount of £98,757.04 in respect of her unlawful detention and breach of article 8 relating to the delay in granting her status. The case is Secretary of State for...
There have been some important additions to pages 50 and 51 of the Good Character guidance (a comparison of the new and old versions is here) that have the potential to block a large number of refugees from naturalising as British citizens, effective immediately. This is described in the changes...
Once the Home Secretary concludes that a refugee is a danger to national security she is entitled to revoke his refugee status. She does not have to go on to consider whether there are less intrusive measures that could be applied. The Home Secretary’s national security decision can only be...
The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill has landed, along with a written statement from the Home Secretary. The Bill weighs in at 57 clauses (“sections” once it is an Act), two schedules and 74 pages. Let’s take a look. You can also read the Explanatory Notes for yourself if...
The Home Office has recently updated its guidance on the streamlined process for children’s asylum applications. This policy was initially introduced to help with the asylum backlog in 2023, the streamlined process has now been in place for almost two years and is no longer restricted to applications lodged prior...
Appendix Statelessness replaced Part 14 of the immigration rules in January 2024. It provides a pathway for stateless people to obtain leave to remain in the UK. The application is free of charge and leads to settlement after five years. The Home Office guidance on statelessness “Permission to stay as...
The Home Office has settled the judicial review claims that seek an independent Article 3 ECHR compliant inquiry into events at Manston in 2022. The claims were brought by individuals detained at Manston in autumn 2022 when there were widespread reports and concerns around overcrowding and very poor conditions, and...
A mother and her severely disabled child have been successful in obtaining a mandatory order for the Home Office to provide them with suitable accommodation as part of their asylum support. The case is R (AYW & Anor) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 3291 (Admin)....
The Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland has dismissed an appeal challenging refusal of Schedule 10 accommodation on the grounds that the applicant did not have a bail address, which is what she was asking for by making the Schedule 10 application. The situation endorsed by the Court of Appeal...
What should happen where young children are carried in a small boat to the United Kingdom and thereby separated from their parents in France? Should the children be returned to France to be reunited with their parents there? Or should the parents be admitted to the United Kingdom to be reunited...
In order to access legal aid, a difficult enough feat as it is, people need to provide evidence of their financial situation. For most of those in the asylum system, that means asking Migrant Help for assistance. Below I have set out some of the issues and hopefully a recent...
After the ban on grants of leave to those in the inadmissibility process was lifted following the change in government earlier this year, there has finally started to be some progress on deciding asylum claims. However early signs are that that the emphasis on fast decision making is coming at...
A fifth decision on the same application made under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy has just been quashed on the grounds of unfairness, meaning that a sixth decision will now need to be made. The Foreign Secretary unsuccessfully tried to conceal the names of the civil servants involved. Once...
In November 2024 there was a significant development in relation to the plight of around 64 people stranded on Diego Garcia, as the Home Secretary announced that she would be offering 61 of them the opportunity to be transferred to the UK. This week, on 2 and 3 December 2024,...
The statistics for the period July to September 2024 have been published today, showing a very large drop in health and care worker visas, a lesser but still significant drop in students, a fall in the asylum grant rate that doesn’t seem likely to achieve much beyond creating further chaos...
In M.I. v. Switzerland – 56390/21 (Article 3 – Prohibition of torture : Third Section) [2024] ECHR 862 the European Court of Human Rights has said that failure to properly assess the risk of ill treatment of an LGBTQI+ person in their country of origin and whether state protection was...
Statement of changes HC 334 has been published today stating that the concession allowing Ukrainians to travel to the UK without the need to enrol their biometrics in advance will end on 18 December 2024. As of 3pm today, subject to transitional provisions, Colombians must obtain entry clearance before coming...
Don’t say I didn’t warn you with that headline. The Upper Tribunal has found that the First-tier Tribunal erred in failing make a finding on whether revocation of leave for a refugee on the grounds that he was deemed a danger to the UK amounted to a breach of the...
The quarterly trafficking statistics for July to September 2024 have been published, with a few records set including for the number of referrals and number of conclusive grounds decisions. The impact of the latter on delays is still difficult to tell because of the reorganisation of cases within the decision...
The High Court has held that an unlawfully withdrawn asylum claim can amount to exceptional circumstances meaning that an extension of time should be granted for a reconsideration request of a trafficking decision. The case is R (KM) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 2870 (Admin)....
Asylum seekers who would otherwise face destitution must rely upon support from the government. This support is limited to either £8.86 a week if their accommodation provides meals or £49.18 in other cases which means most will struggle to meet their basic needs. Given this meagre level of support, it...
The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration has published a report on “An inspection of contingency asylum accommodation November 2023 – June 2024” highlighting the usual problems around lack of stakeholder engagement and data as well as concerns about the lack of Home Office checks on accommodation providers. The...
The Law Society is launching its latest round of reaccreditations for senior caseworkers and supervising senior caseworkers in immigration law. Here we take a look at what we know and do not know about the scheme and then turn to how we can help you at Free Movement. Before we...
The Supreme Court has held that express reference to the Home Secretary’s guidance on her duty under section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 is not required in a decision letter in order to demonstrate that the duty has been complied with. The court also held that...
In a decision on an interim relief application in an age assessment judicial review, the Administrative Court has reiterated the requirements of the Civil Procedure Rules on expert evidence and in particular the need to make an application to rely on this as soon as possible. The case is R...
Internal and cross-border climate and disaster displacement are not under-studied fields. An abundance of research spanning decades depicts a clear global map of the intersecting and multifaceted issues at play, and indeed, many solutions. However, the legal rights of those who have or will likely move are what hangs in...
Spain has been ordered by the European Court of Human Rights to pay a Nigerian woman €15,000 in damages as compensation for failures relating to the investigation of allegations that she was trafficked to Spain for forced prostitution. The case is T.V. v. Spain (application no. 22512/21) and although the...
The High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland has dismissed a judicial review alleging a breach of article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights because of the delay in the applicant’s asylum claim. The case is JR247, Re Application for Judicial Review (Rev1) [2024] NIKB 72. Background The...
In this post, we will look at who is eligible to apply under Appendix Child staying with or joining a Non-Parent Relative (Protection), what the requirements are, what leave is granted if successful and routes to settlement. Appendix Child staying with or joining a Non-Parent Relative (Protection) is a relatively...
The Upper Tribunal has given useful guidance on when such grants can be made to non-Afghan nationals as well as setting out a summary of the legal principles to be followed on the interpretation of policy. The case is R (Bam Bahadur Gurung) v Secretary of State for the Home...
New figures published today show the asylum appeals backlog had risen to 33,227 cases at the end of June 2024, under the last government. In the period April to June 2024, the immigration tribunal received 9,318 asylum appeals and disposed of 3,598 asylum appeals. These figures look bad as they...
The report into the Rwanda country policy and information notes by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration has finally been published. The Rwanda scheme may be over, and the relevant country notes withdrawn shortly after the Supreme Court’s decision but as I pointed out last week, there are...
A new commentary by Asylos, in partnership with Rainbow Migration, has considered the Home Office’s country policy and information note on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression in Georgia and identified various assertions on risk that are inconsistent with or unsupported by the country evidence elsewhere in the note....
The autumn statement of changes HC 217 has been published, accompanied by a written statement from Seema Malhotra MP, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Migration and Citizenship. The errors we covered last week in relation to skilled worker going rates are being corrected from 8 October 2024 and we...
Anecdotal evidence of a recent increase in Afghan asylum refusals, along with publication of two updated country policy and information notes suggests that the Home Office has changed its approach to those who have come to the UK from Afghanistan and sought protection. Background I wrote previously about the history...
The Commissioner of the British Indian Ocean Territory has unsuccessfully appealed a grant of bail allowing the small group of people seeking asylum on Diego Garcia to access certain parts of the island. The case is The Commissioner v The King (on the application of VT & Ors) (No. 3)...
