All Articles: Cases

Preliminary ruling on prosecuting small boat arrivals

Those following the law around the prosecution of arrival in small boats may be interested in the ruling from the preparatory hearing in R v Mohamed and others. The purpose of the hearing was to provide a clear ruling on points of law that are likely ...

10th January 2023 By

High Court orders Home Secretary to immediately increase asylum support rates

In a powerful judgment given on 21 December 2022, the High Court ordered the Secretary of State for the Home Department to immediately increase the weekly support payments made to asylum seekers to £45. This is the largest ever single increase in the ...

9th January 2023 By

The reasonably foreseeable consequences of depriving someone of British citizenship

The case of Muslija (deprivation: reasonably foreseeable consequences) [2022] UKUT 337 (IAC) makes it clear that the reasonably foreseeable consequences of deprivation of British citizenship do not include predicting the outcome of a subsequent human ...

6th January 2023 By

Social media and the duty of candour in age assessment proceedings

The Upper Tribunal has issued guidance on the use of material from an applicant’s social media accounts in age assessment proceedings in R (BG) v LB Hackney [2022] UKUT 00338 (IAC). The brief facts The standard directions made by the Upper Tribunal ...

23rd December 2022 By

High Court determines proper interpretation of an original ‘patrial’ provision of the 1971 Act

In the clause “had that citizenship by his birth, adoption, naturalisation or registration in the United Kingdom”, does the requirement for it to be in the United Kingdom apply to just registration or all of the other means of acquiring citizenshi ...

20th December 2022 By

Upper Tribunal issues Country Guidance on El Salvador gang risk

The Upper Tribunal has issued country guidance about the risk from gangs in El Salvador. In EMAP (Gang violence – Convention Reason) El Salvador CG [2022] UKUT 00335 (IAC), the Upper Tribunal makes helpful findings about the general context in which ...

20th December 2022 By

Win for Pre-Settled Status holders accessing benefits

The problems faced by pre-settled status holders who cannot show a qualifying right to reside when trying to access benefits have been dragging on for several years. Notwithstanding their lawful immigration status, the Department for Work and Pensions ...

15th December 2022 By

False imprisonment claimant punished for failing to negotiate

The High Court has provided a warning to practitioners about the importance of pursuing negotiations in false imprisonment claims. The case of Moradi v The Home Office [2022] EWHC 3125 (KB) also concerns the timings of those negotiations. The judge to ...

9th December 2022 By

Strategic litigation: more harm than good?

Strategic litigation is a hot topic. Jolyon Maugham’s controversial Good Law Project provokes a visceral marmite effect. Some people absolute love it. Some, not so much. Sometimes referred to as ‘impact’, ‘test case’ or & ...

28th November 2022 By

Procedural errors should be remitted says Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal has found that the Upper Tribunal should not have continued to decide an appeal itself when it set aside a decision of the First-tier Tribunal. The case is AEB v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWCA Civ 1512. Back ...

22nd November 2022 By

Post-Brexit marriages in durable partner appeals

Hot on the heels of Celik and Batool comes another case dealing with the complex mess of post-Brexit free movement law. The case is Elais (fairness and extended family members) [2022] UKUT 300 (IAC). You can read more about the cases of Celik and ...

18th November 2022 By

Councils contest use of hotels for asylum seekers

Legal battles concerning appropriate accommodation for asylum-seekers are not limited to claims concerning the welfare of those seeking asylum. The High Court recently heard injunction applications sought by local authorities against a number of hotel ...

17th November 2022 By

Home Office breaches the duty of candour in mobile phone seizures case

The Divisional Court has now published its judgment addressing the Home Office’s breach of the duty of candour in the mobile phone seizures case. It is reported as R (HM, MA & KH) v SSHD [2022] EWHC 2729 (Admin). Earlier posts address the Di ...

15th November 2022 By

Failed asylum seeker’s false identity conviction quashed

In Elmi [2022] EWCA Crim 1428, the Court of Appeal quashed the conviction of a failed asylum seeker who had been found guilty of possessing a false identity document. Elmi had not been advised that he could use the defence of a presumptive refugee und ...

14th November 2022 By

The reality of safe and legal routes for refugee family reunion

SGW is a UK-based refugee and Eritrean national. His brother, FGW, is a young person who was trapped in Libya until recently. FGW’s journey to the UK has not been quick, safe or simple. In the case of R (SGW) v Secretary of State for the Home Depart ...

11th November 2022 By

Refusal of habeas corpus for British citizens in Syrian Camp

The Divisional Court has refused applications for habeas corpus made on behalf of two British women and their children detained in a camp in northeast Syria. The case is C3 and C4 v Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Affair ...

11th November 2022 By

Successful challenge in the High Court helps family of Afghan judge

The High Court has quashed a decision to refuse entry to the children of an Afghan judge who was relocated to the UK under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy. The case of R (BAL) v Secretary of State for Defence [2022] EWHC 2757 (Admin) is a ...

4th November 2022 By

The case of AA: a never-ending story?

This is the story of what might be the longest-running appeal within the UK’s immigration appeal system. The story starts in rather ordinary fashion. AA arrived in the UK on the back of a lorry in early January 2009 when he was a child. He was a you ...

1st November 2022 By

Secretary of State to backdate support payments after Court of Appeal dismisses case

The Court of Appeal has ruled that the Home Office provided insignificant cash payments to asylum seekers with trafficking claims during the first lockdown. The appeal was brought by the Secretary of State for the Home Department following a defeat in ...

28th October 2022 By

Court of Appeal quash trafficking victim’s 2009 conviction

The Court of Appeal has granted an application made by a woman who was trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation, to quash her conviction from November 2009. She was convicted for using a false identity document when attempting to travel to t ...

27th October 2022 By

Lack of route for victims of transnational marriage abandonment is unlawful, High Court finds

There is no good reason to treat victims of transnational marriage abandonment differently from victims of domestic abuse in the UK. So found Lieven J in the case of R on the application of AM v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] E ...

20th October 2022 By

Introducing proportionality assessments into marriage of convenience cases

In an unreported case, Upper Tribunal Judge Stephen Smith held that a proportionality assessment should happen in marriage of convenience cases. Secretary of State of the Home Department v Ms Dora Nketia (unreported) 11 Aug 2022 EA/04841/2019 concern ...

14th October 2022 By

Home Office to review policy on timing of applications after single father’s right to work limbo

The Home Office has agreed to review its policy Fee waiver: Human Rights-based and other specified applications, which provides guidance on the time limits for making human rights based immigration applications where an application is made after a fee ...

12th October 2022 By

What’s happening in the Rwanda legal challenges?

There are a number of general and individual judicial review challenges to the government’s policy of removing asylum seekers to Rwanda. To recap, in April 2022 the government announced a Migration and Economic Development Partnership with Rwanda fo ...

11th October 2022 By

Applicants from Afghanistan may not need to enrol biometrics at the time of an application

The High Court has confirmed that the Home Office is obligated to consider exercising discretion to waive or delay the requirement to enrol biometrics before considering an application in R (KA and others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department ...

7th October 2022 By

Major European judgment on age assessment process

The European Court of Human Rights has handed down a significant judgment concerning the age-assessment process and rights of child asylum seekers. In Darboe and Camara v Italy (Application no. 5797/17), the court found that the Italian government had ...

30th September 2022 By

No unlawful decision on right to work for the dependant of an asylum seeker

OH v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] UKAITUR JR2021LON001003 concerns the rights of a dependant of an asylum seeker to work in the United Kingdom. OH challenged a decision to refuse his request to work whilst he was a dependant of hi ...

29th September 2022 By

Afghan interpreter successfully challenges entry clearance refusal

The High Court has quashed a decision to refuse entry clearance under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (“ARAP”) on national security grounds. Unfortunately, like all national security cases it is difficult to work out exactly wh ...

27th September 2022 By

The Upper Tribunal amends Country Guidance to account for a dying language

The appellant in ASA (Bajuni: correct approach, Sprakab reports) CG [2022] UKUT 00222 (IAC) argued that he was born and raised on the Island of Chula until he was 17. He was a citizen of Somalia and of Bajuni origin and therefore he was at risk of per ...

12th September 2022 By

Poorly drafted Immigration Rules continue to face disdain in long residency appeals

A ticked off Court of Appeal has refused another long residence appeal based on gaps in lawful residence, in a judgment full of digs at the Home Office in Iyieke v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWCA Civ 1147. The court made no bone ...

7th September 2022 By

No appeal against Upper Tribunal refusal to set aside its own decision

There is no right of appeal against a refusal by the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) to set aside a decision disposing of proceedings. So held the Court of Appeal in DJ (Pakistan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWC ...

5th August 2022 By

Home Office entitled to refuse Windrush citizenship applications on good character grounds

Hubert Howard arrived in the United Kingdom in 1960, aged four. He was a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies back then and was fully entitled to enter the country of his nationality. The law changed around him over the years but he carried on w ...

2nd August 2022 By