All Articles: Cases
Damages claim for asylum delay dismissed by Court of Appeal
The Court of Appeal has dismissed a claim for damages against the Home Secretary for a five month delay in granting refugee status, following a successful appeal, to a person with severe mental health issues. The case is FXJ v Secretary of State for t ...
30th November 2023Court of Appeal tells Home Office to reconsider “plainly wrong” decision on Turkish business person application
The Home Office must reconsider an application in the now closed Turkish business person route after an poor initial decision to refuse was then compounded by flawed decision making on administrative review and in the subsequent judicial review. The c ...
29th November 2023Government should not routinely remove names of civil servants in judicial review disclosure
The High Court has told the government that they should not be routinely redacting the names of civil servants when disclosing documents in the course of judicial review proceedings. The substantive judicial review challenge is to the Houses in Multip ...
23rd November 2023Court of Appeal says deportation of mother of British child not “unduly harsh”
The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal against the deportation of a mother with a British citizen child, finding that their separation would not be “unduly harsh”. The case is FN (Burundi) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] E ...
22nd November 2023Court of Appeal dismisses appeal on interpretation of nationality law
The Court of Appeal has agreed with the High Court and dismissed an appeal on a point of statutory interpretation regarding when the right of abode was acquired through a person’s parent. The case is Indran Murugason, R (on the application of) v ...
21st November 2023Deception case returned to the Upper Tribunal after material error of law made
The Court of Appeal has sent a case back to the Upper Tribunal for reconsideration after a failure to properly consider article 8 and the making of a material error in relation to the appellant’s husband’s nationality. The case is Gurdeep ...
20th November 2023Upper Tribunal failed to properly assess whether error of law was material in asylum appeal
The Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal from the Upper Tribunal (IAC) against the refusal of an asylum claim by an Iraqi man whose claim was partly based on a risk of violence because of his relationship with his girlfriend. The case is ASO (Iraq) v ...
17th November 2023Supreme Court finds Rwanda is not a safe country to which refugees can be removed
The Supreme Court has today held that Rwanda is not a safe country and that it would be unlawful for refugees to be removed there. The government’s appeal against the Court of Appeal’s judgment has been dismissed. Lord Reed, giving the co ...
15th November 2023Late evidence from the Home Office can be admitted in an appeal where the appellant was aware of it
The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal where it was argued that evidence from an earlier judicial review should not be admitted to proceedings in the First-tier Tribunal due to late disclosure by the Home Office. The case is Kanhirakandan v The S ...
14th November 2023Court of Appeal dismisses government appeal on access to benefits for people with pre settled status
The Court of Appeal has dismissed the government’s appeal in Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v AT (AIRE Centre and Independent Monitoring Authority intervening) [2023] EWCA Civ 1307, meaning that people with pre settled status under App ...
9th November 2023Permission granted in challenge to rejection of Albanian asylum claim
Permission has been granted in a judicial review case where an Albanian man claiming asylum had his claim certified on the basis that he was from a ‘safe country’, meaning that he was not allowed to appeal. There was also an unlawful deten ...
9th November 2023Guidance in Begum on deprivation decisions is not restricted to national security cases
The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) has concluded that the guidance given by the Supreme Court in Begum v Special Immigration Appeals Commission & Anor [2021] UKSC 7 on how deprivation decisions should be made is not limited to cases ...
3rd November 2023Court of Appeal sends medical treatment case back to the First-tier Tribunal
The Court of Appeal has reiterated the process that should be followed in article 3 medical treatment cases in relation to the shifting burden of proof, as set out in AM (Zimbabwe) v SSHD [2020] UKSC 17 and in the headnote to the Upper Tribunal ...
2nd November 2023High Court success in challenge to move of highly vulnerable asylum seeker away from his support network
The High Court has issued a damning judgment lamenting the Home Secretary’s attempt to defend a decision to place a highly vulnerable person seeking asylum in accommodation in Swindon, where he could not access his support network in London. The cas ...
31st October 2023New asylum processes set up on disputed territory of Diego Garcia
Diego Garcia did not have any sort of asylum system in place when it received its first asylum seekers in 2021. Following litigation, the British Indian Ocean Territory has for the first time put in place processes for protection claims to be lodged a ...
23rd October 2023TLScontact in unsuccessful challenge to new Home Office contract
It appears that we may start seeing changes in overseas visa processing centres soon, after TLScontact was unsuccessful in an attempt to stop the Home Office from entering into a new contract with VFS Global. The case is Teleperformance Contact Ltd v ...
19th October 2023Court of Appeal gives guidance on sentencing for small boats prosecutions
The Court of Appeal in R v Ginar [2023] EWCA Crim 1121 has given guidance on the appropriate criminal sentences for those convicted for the offence of arriving (or attempting to arrive) in the UK without entry clearance, contrary to section 24(D1) of ...
18th October 2023Home Office concedes latest challenge to no recourse to public funds policy
The Home Office has conceded the latest in an increasingly long line of cases challenging the operation of the no recourse to public funds policy. This challenge was to the refusal to lift the no recourse condition from a person with section 3C leave ...
16th October 2023No Windrush compensation for man whose ILR lapsed while imprisoned abroad
A claimant wrongly given a deportation order couldn’t benefit from the Windrush Compensation Scheme because his indefinite leave to remain had already lapsed, the High Court has held in R (on the application of Thompson) v Secretary of State for the ...
11th August 2023‘Systematic and routine’ use of hotels for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children is unlawful
The Home Secretary’s systematic and routine accommodation of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in hotels is unlawful, the High Court has held. The case, R (on the application of ECPAT UK) v Kent County Council and another [2023] EWHC 1953 (Admin ...
3rd August 2023Post-Brexit spouses aren’t protected by the Withdrawal Agreement, Court of Appeal confirms
If you married an EU national in the UK after 31 December 2020, you can’t get leave to remain under the EU Settlement Scheme unless you previously had or applied for an EEA residence card or family permit as their durable partner. That remains the c ...
1st August 2023High Court demands radical change to Home Office asylum support
In the recent judgment R (HA and Ors) v SSHD [2023] EWHC 1876 (Admin) the High Court (Swift J) found that the Home Secretary failed to meet even her minimalist legal obligations to provide support to destitute asylum seekers. The details of the case m ...
1st August 2023‘Minded to cancel’ process applies to dishonesty allegations at the UK border
A student whose leave was cancelled on arrival was wrongly denied the opportunity to comment on an allegation of falsified English language qualifications. So held the High Court in R (on the application of Tazeem) v Secretary of State for the Home De ...
28th July 2023Upper Tribunal rules post-Brexit Zambrano appeals can continue
In a highly technical decision, Osunneye (Zambrano, transitional appeal rights) Nigeria [2023] UKUT 162 (IAC), the Upper Tribunal has concluded that Zambrano appeals may proceed notwithstanding the various Brexit regulations. The official headnote: A ...
25th July 2023Ahmed: “historical injustice” explained… again?
The Upper Tribunal has provided further guidance on the meaning of historical injustice in the case of Ahmed v SSHD [2023] UKUT 00165 (IAC). “Historical injustice” is the term used to describe the circumstances where an individual has suffered as ...
25th July 2023Mother and four children spent over a year in ‘inadequate’ accommodation
An asylum-seeking mother and her four children were placed in inadequate hotel accommodation for over a year, the High Court has found. The case is R (on the application of SA) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWHC 1787 (Admin). It ...
20th July 2023Home Office withdraws objective evidence test for trafficking decisions
The Home Office has, following a judicial review challenge for two claimants of Duncan Lewis, published new modern slavery statutory guidance which no longer requires a potential victim of trafficking and modern slavery to produce ‘objective’ evid ...
19th July 2023Airport detainee wrongly denied a solicitor in immigration interview
A would-be student stopped on arrival in the UK was wrongly denied a solicitor in interview, the High Court has found in R (on the application of Kumar) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWHC 1741 (Admin). The facts Mr Kumar arrived ...
14th July 2023High Court rejects challenge to EU Settlement Scheme dependency rules for children
The child of an EU national is only entitled to stay in the UK after Brexit if they are under 21 or dependent on their parent, the High Court has held. In reaching this conclusion, the court in R (on the application of Ali) v Secretary of State for th ...
7th July 2023No visa for Afghan interpreter accused of leaking sensitive information
The Home Secretary was entitled to refuse entry clearance to an Afghan interpreter accused of releasing sensitive information and threatening to kill coalition forces. That was the conclusion of the High Court in FMA and others v Secretary of State fo ...
6th July 2023Reflections on the Court of Appeal’s Rwanda decision
This post reflects on last week’s extraordinary Court of Appeal judgment on the Rwanda policy. You can read our initial take on this here. Appeal to the Supreme Court The government has already announced its intention to seek leave to appeal to the ...
5th July 2023Supreme Court finds exclusion of Palestinians from resettlement scheme not unlawful
The Supreme Court has held that there was no legal obligation to consider the equality impact of excluding Palestinians from the UK’s resettlement scheme for refugees from Syria. The design of the scheme was therefore lawful. The case is R (on the a ...
3rd July 2023Court of Appeal finds Rwanda plan unlawful as Rwanda is not a safe third country
The Court of Appeal has found, by a majority, that the Rwanda plan is unlawful as Rwanda is not a sufficiently safe country. In short, the Rwandan authorities are not yet reliably able to sort genuine from non-genuine refugees, and therefore there is ...
29th June 2023Supreme Court finds golden visa scheme unlawful
Last week the Supreme Court found that a financing scheme to help individuals qualify for an Investor visa did not comply with the requirements of the immigration rules. The case is R (on the application of Wang) v Secretary of State for the Home Depa ...
26th June 2023Scottish inquiry finds immigration detention centre death was avoidable
A Scottish Fatal Accident Inquiry has held that a number of defects in the system of working in Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre led to the death of a 54-year old Chinese man which could have reasonably been avoided. A Fatal Accident Inquiry, simil ...
15th June 2023Court declines to take legal guardianship of refugee children missing from hotels
The High Court has decided it should not invoke its wardship jurisdiction in relation to missing and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. In Article 39 v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWHC 1398 (Fam), Article 39, a charity promot ...
13th June 2023New country guidance on Democratic Republic of the Congo
On 22nd May 2023 the Upper Tribunal published a new country guidance on case on Democratic Republic of Congo, PO (DRC – Post 2018 elections) (CG) [2023] UKUT 00117. PO considers the risk of persecution for political opponents following the election ...
2nd June 2023