All Articles: Cases

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 Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023]...

19th October 2023
BY Sonia Lenegan

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 the Immigration Act 1971. The offence was...

18th October 2023
BY Larry Lock

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 as a student dependant. The case...

16th October 2023
BY Sonia Lenegan

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 Home Department [2023] EWHC 2037 (Admin). The compensation scheme...

11th August 2023
BY Deborah Revill

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), looks at what happens when local authorities don’t comply with their...

3rd August 2023
BY Deborah Revill

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 case even if you would...

1st August 2023
BY Deborah Revill

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 make shocking reading, even for those...

1st August 2023
BY John Crowley

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 Department [2023] EWHC 1828 (Admin), a case addressing...

28th July 2023
BY Deborah Revill

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 decision to the contrary would have come as something of a surprise as it was surely...

25th July 2023
BY Colin Yeo

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 a result of the wrongful operation (or non-operation) by the...

25th July 2023
BY Jennifer Lanigan

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 is a striking example of a...

20th July 2023
BY Deborah Revill

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’ evidence corroborating a credible account of their experiences in order to receive a positive...

19th July 2023
BY Thomas Munns

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 at Manchester Airport with a...

14th July 2023
BY Deborah Revill

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 the...

7th July 2023
BY Deborah Revill

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 for the Home Department [2023] EWHC 1579 (Admin), the latest...

6th July 2023
BY Deborah Revill

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 UK Supreme Court. The key issues that...

5th July 2023
BY Jed Pennington

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 application of Marouf) v Secretary of State for...

3rd July 2023
BY Deborah Revill

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 too great a risk that genuine refugees...

29th June 2023
BY Gabriel Tan

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 Department [2023] UKSC 21 and the...

26th June 2023
BY Colin Yeo

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, similar to an inquest in England, is an...

15th June 2023
BY Bilaal Shabbir

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 promoting and protecting the rights of children in England who are...

13th June 2023
BY Bilaal Shabbir

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 of Felix Tshisekedi in 2019, significantly narrowing the scope...

2nd June 2023
BY Katherine Soroya

A judgment in the High Court details multiple examples of unlawful detention of individuals re-entering the UK because an unpublished Home Office policy wrongly suggested officers had the power to stop, detain and question individuals who have unpaid NHS debt. The case is MXK & Ors, R (On the application...

31st May 2023
BY Josie Laidman

The unduly harsh test in deportation cases has been subject to litigation for years and we have written about it in several articles, most recently in relation to the  Supreme Court case of HA (Iraq). The Court of Appeal has now published its judgment in Sicwebu v Secretary of State...

30th May 2023
BY Francesca Sella

Following the abolition of the “not in accordance with the immigration rules” ground of appeal by the Immigration Act 2014, several cases have considered the relevance of the immigration rules in human rights appeals. The Upper Tribunal has neatly encapsulated the current position in a recent case, Caguitla (Paragraphs 197...

30th May 2023
BY Iain Halliday

The Upper Tribunal has set aside a decision of the First-tier Tribunal after finding the hearing was unfair because of the conduct of the judge and the failure to adjourn the case when the Home Office Presenting Officer raised concerns over her personal safety. The Upper Tribunal in MS (judicial...

26th May 2023
BY Sonia Lenegan

The Upper Tribunal has given guidance on the correct approach in deprivation appeals. The headnote to this case, Chimi (deprivation appeals; scope and evidence) Cameroon [2023] UKUT 00115 (IAC), says: Background Ms Chimi was born in September 1977 in Cameroon. In 2000 she moved to France and formed a relationship....

22nd May 2023
BY Josie Laidman

The High Court has found that the Secretary of State for Defence had not given full and adequate reasons and had acted contrary to its policy when considering an application for settlement in the UK by an individual working with the British embassy in Afghanistan. R (MKA) v Secretary of...

19th May 2023
BY Bilaal Shabbir

The appeal of C3 and C4, two British women who travelled to Syria to join the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant who were subsequently detained in a camp in northern Syria, has been dismissed. The case is C3 & Anor v Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth &...

11th May 2023
BY Josie Laidman

The High Court has dismissed a claim for judicial review of a paid settlement sum of £103,501.21 under the Windrush Compensation Scheme on the grounds of abuse of process as the amount offered by the government had already been accepted before pursuing the judicial review. The case is Vernon Vanriel...

10th May 2023
BY Charlotte Rubin

The High Court has confirmed that the restrictive parameters of the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme put in place in January 2022 do not stray from the intention of the policy as it was originally announced in September 2021. R (GA) v Secretary of State for the Home Department and Ors...

5th May 2023
BY Josie Laidman

A recent appeal concerning third country national’s right to continue residing in the UK after divorce from an EU national and release from prison was dismissed by the Court of Appeal. The case is Balogun v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWCA Civ 414. The appeal pre-dated...

2nd May 2023
BY Josie Laidman

The Court of Appeal has re-affirmed that the domestic violence provisions in the immigration rules are restricted to certain categories of partners and is not open to partners of Points Based System dependants, even if they have in fact suffered domestic abuse. The case is SWP v Secretary of State...

28th April 2023
BY Bilaal Shabbir

In a helpful judgment, the Upper Tribunal has awarded £10,500 to a child who was unlawfully prevented from entering the UK from Greece to be re-united with his cousin who had been recognised as a refugee and had lived in the UK for many years. R(MA) v Secretary of State...

25th April 2023
BY Alex Schymyck

An exploration of the different entitlements to family reunion for parents and siblings of refugee children and partners and children of adult refugees was recently heard in a judicial review that highlights the barriers to family reunions in the immigration rules and the importance of safeguarding refugee children as increasing...

20th April 2023
BY Josie Laidman

Despite strong public interest considerations in favour of respecting extradition agreements, the High Court has decided that a Polish national who came to the UK as a fugitive eight years ago will not be extradited. The case is Dobrowolski v District Court in Bydgoszcz, Poland [2023] EWHC 763 (Admin). Background...

13th April 2023
BY Charlotte Rubin

The European Court of Human Rights has given formal notification to the UK government of an application by an Iraqi asylum-seeker (anonymised as NSK) challenging his removal to Rwanda. They also found that several of the Rule 39 interim measures to prevent individual applicants being removal to Rwanda have now...

12th April 2023
BY Gabriel Tan

The High Court has upheld the effectiveness of the ouster clause in the Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022, which ousts the jurisdiction of the courts in Upper Tribunal permission to appeal decisions except in very limited circumstances. The decision is R (Oceana) v Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber)...

6th April 2023
BY Gabriel Tan

The High Court has rejected a challenge to the Secretary of State’s decision to move a group of Afghan families rescued from the Taliban in 2021 from one temporary hotel to another temporary hotel. R(HZ) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWHC 660 (Admin) leaves open the...

4th April 2023
BY Alex Schymyck

The High Court has ruled that the government’s second attempt to produce an immigration exemption to the Data Protection Act 2018 is still incompatible with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Only a week after the hearing, the judgment in R (on the application of the3million & Anor) v...

30th March 2023
BY Josie Laidman

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