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
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons has published a report of an unannounced inspection of Brook House immigration removal centre. The inspection took place between 5
In R (Nakrasevicius) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 1856 (Admin), the High Court ordered the defendant Home Secretary to release
In Adegboyega v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 2365 (KB), the High Court has awarded £203,995 to a victim of the
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 Office has been ordered to disclose data on the numbers of emergency travel documents issued for Eritrea and Somalia, and how long it
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons has published a report on an unannounced inspection of Harmondsworth immigration removal centre, a facility run by Mitie Care and
The Home Office has published statistics for the period January to March 2024 showing a marked drop in the grant rate for asylum cases, tens
The High Court has determined that the Home Secretary’s use of electronic monitoring was unlawful in respect of four claimants and the principles applied in
Following a legal challenge, the small group of Sri Lankan people seeking asylum in Diego Garcia have been granted bail so that they are able
The Home Office is proposing to change the Adults at Risk guidance in a way that will result in more vulnerable people being detained. On
On 11 March 2024, the President and Vice-President of the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) handed down their decision in R (Mark Nelson) v
In the case of R (On the Application Of Medical Justice) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 38 (Admin), handed down
In Oluponle v Home Office [2023] EWHC 3188 (KB), the claimant was awarded £20,000 for 60 days’ false imprisonment. Several helpful comments were made on
The High Court has issued a damning interim relief decision with a laundry list of Home Office failures in a case challenging the detention of
The Independent Monitoring Boards have published their National Annual Report for 2022 on the immigration detention estate and concerns have been raised in relation to
This article provides an overview of some of the safeguards available for those who are held in immigration detention, focussing particularly on those who have
Here, we look at the practicalities involved in getting a good medico-legal report. We have previously explained what a medico-legal report is and that article
Staff working at Brook House immigration removal centre were verbally and physically abusive towards the people who were detained, including the use of extremely racist
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
In January this year, the Home Office updated its guidance on reporting conditions, again. Version 6 was published on 19 January 2023, replacing version 5
As the House of Common’s second reading of the Illegal Migration Bill takes place today, this post looks at the detention provisions in clauses 11-14
This post provides an update on legal challenges to the Home Office’s policy and practice of requiring people on immigration bail to wear Global Positioning
Yesterday, the third annual inspection from the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) of ‘Adults at risk in immigration detention’ was published. On
A new report has been published this morning by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons on the controversial short term holding facility for refugees at Manston
The electronic monitoring of foreign national offenders is riddled with flaws which can be traced back to Home Office underfunding and inefficiency, an independent report has
In R (Abulbakr) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWHC 1183 (Admin), the High Court has ordered the Home Office to pay
In R (BVN) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWHC 1159 (Admin) the High Court has confirmed that the Secretary of State
A damning report on healthcare and safeguarding in detention has concluded that the existing protocols for vulnerable detainees are “totally and utterly flawed”. The Medical
From April 2022 the Home Office has moved to using telephone reporting as a mainstream reporting alternative. This follows on from changes implemented on an
Ali v The Home Office [2022] EWHC 866 (QB) is a successful appeal against the Central London County Court’s decision to dismiss the false imprisonment claim
Last August, the provisions in Schedule 10 of the Immigration Act 2016 providing for foreign national offenders liable to deportation to be subject to mandatory
On 7 February 2022 the Home Office updated Detention Services Order 02/2019 on Care and management of Post Detention Age claims. This policy sets out
The High Court has thrown out a challenge arguing that the free legal advice given to migrants in detention centres is rubbish. Mr Justice Calver
In Kaitey v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 1875 the Court of Appeal has upheld the High Court’s decision that
In R (Babbage) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWHC 2995 (Admin), the High Court found that a person with an extensive
On 21 October 2021 the Home Office published the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration’s (ICIBI) second annual inspection of the Adults at Risk
The Supreme Court has this morning handed down judgment in R (Majera) (formerly SM Rwanda) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] UKSC
The Home Office has been found in breach of its legal duty to protect HIV patients in its custody after officials left a Congolese man
An eight-month detention period for EU citizens is disproportionate, the Court of Justice of the European Union has decided. The case is C-718/19 Ordre des
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...
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons has published a report of an unannounced inspection of Brook House immigration removal centre. The inspection took place between 5 and 22 August 2024 and does not make pretty reading. The last inspection took place in June 2022. Since then, of the four tests for...
In R (Nakrasevicius) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 1856 (Admin), the High Court ordered the defendant Home Secretary to release a detainee who was being detained pending the resolution of Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings against him in the Crown Court. It addresses the relatively...
In Adegboyega v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 2365 (KB), the High Court has awarded £203,995 to a victim of the abuse at Brook House immigration removal centre. The judgment is a vindication of the bravery of detainees who came forward to participate and give evidence...
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)...
The Home Office has been ordered to disclose data on the numbers of emergency travel documents issued for Eritrea and Somalia, and how long it took for those documents to be issued, after refusing to provide the information in response to a request made under the Freedom of Information Act...
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons has published a report on an unannounced inspection of Harmondsworth immigration removal centre, a facility run by Mitie Care and Custody, concluding that “there is a huge amount of work to be done to get Harmondsworth even up to the mediocre standards we found at...
The Home Office has published statistics for the period January to March 2024 showing a marked drop in the grant rate for asylum cases, tens of thousands of EU Settlement Scheme applications rejected as invalid, and a fee waiver backlog that seems to be rapidly spiralling out of control. My...
The High Court has determined that the Home Secretary’s use of electronic monitoring was unlawful in respect of four claimants and the principles applied in the case will have a wider impact. The court also found that the Home Secretary can lawfully use data collected through electronic monitoring to decide...
Following a legal challenge, the small group of Sri Lankan people seeking asylum in Diego Garcia have been granted bail so that they are able to access more of the island beyond the tiny encampment they were kept in previously. We have previously published a post providing the historical context...
The Home Office is proposing to change the Adults at Risk guidance in a way that will result in more vulnerable people being detained. On 30 April 2024 draft statutory Adults at Risk guidance was published and the Immigration (Guidance on Detention of Vulnerable Persons) Regulations 2024 will bring the...
On 11 March 2024, the President and Vice-President of the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) handed down their decision in R (Mark Nelson) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (JR-2023-001472), the first challenge to the Home Secretary’s policy of requiring people on immigration bail to be monitored...
In the case of R (On the Application Of Medical Justice) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 38 (Admin), handed down on 12 January 2024, the High Court allowed a judicial review brought by the charity Medical Justice to a Home Office policy of seeking a...
In Oluponle v Home Office [2023] EWHC 3188 (KB), the claimant was awarded £20,000 for 60 days’ false imprisonment. Several helpful comments were made on various Home Office failings during the detention process. Background The claimant was a Nigerian national who had been caught trying to fly to Ireland using...
The High Court has issued a damning interim relief decision with a laundry list of Home Office failures in a case challenging the detention of a potential victim of trafficking with mental health issues and several criminal convictions. The case is R (ER) v Secretary of State for the Home...
The Independent Monitoring Boards have published their National Annual Report for 2022 on the immigration detention estate and concerns have been raised in relation to several areas, many of which will be familiar to anyone working in this area. People are still being detained for too long, including one person...
This article provides an overview of some of the safeguards available for those who are held in immigration detention, focussing particularly on those who have been victims of torture. These safeguards are all the more important following the expansion of detention powers under section 12 of the Illegal Migration Act....
Here, we look at the practicalities involved in getting a good medico-legal report. We have previously explained what a medico-legal report is and that article should be read alongside this one. These reports can be a game changer in cases involving vulnerable clients, but in the current climate it is...
Staff working at Brook House immigration removal centre were verbally and physically abusive towards the people who were detained, including the use of extremely racist language. There were 19 incidents of inhuman and degrading treatment of people at a single removal centre over a period of just five months. That...
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...
In January this year, the Home Office updated its guidance on reporting conditions, again. Version 6 was published on 19 January 2023, replacing version 5 which was in place for less than six months, from 30 June 2022. Version 5 Version 5 was very much a welcome development in terms...
As the House of Common’s second reading of the Illegal Migration Bill takes place today, this post looks at the detention provisions in clauses 11-14 and what they mean for individuals arriving in the UK. You can read Colin’s analysis of the Bill in full, here. The current legal position...
This post provides an update on legal challenges to the Home Office’s policy and practice of requiring people on immigration bail to wear Global Positioning System (GPS) devices. You can read more about the policy and the legal framework here and here. To summarise, in August 2021 the Home Office...
Yesterday, the third annual inspection from the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) of ‘Adults at risk in immigration detention’ was published. On the same day, the Home Secretary discontinued the standing commission for this annual review. The report focuses specifically on the efficiency and effectiveness of Rule...
A new report has been published this morning by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons on the controversial short term holding facility for refugees at Manston in Kent. The inspection took place in late July 2022, before the current Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, is reported to have prevented hotel bookings that...
The electronic monitoring of foreign national offenders is riddled with flaws which can be traced back to Home Office underfunding and inefficiency, an independent report has found. The Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, David Neal, says the system for electronic tagging and GPS tracking of FNOs “cannot yet demonstrate...
In R (Abulbakr) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWHC 1183 (Admin), the High Court has ordered the Home Office to pay a detainee £17,500 for 40 days of unlawful detention caused by unreasonable delay in providing a release address. The figure is high for the length...
In R (BVN) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWHC 1159 (Admin) the High Court has confirmed that the Secretary of State has no power to interfere with the conditions attached to a grant of High Court bail. It is an unusual issue and the judgment contains...
A damning report on healthcare and safeguarding in detention has concluded that the existing protocols for vulnerable detainees are “totally and utterly flawed”. The Medical Justice report Harmed not Heard focuses on the inadequacy of the Rule 35 safeguarding process, designed to identify vulnerable detainees for release. The research comes...
From April 2022 the Home Office has moved to using telephone reporting as a mainstream reporting alternative. This follows on from changes implemented on an emergency basis during the pandemic lockdown and sustained lobbying by migrants rights groups. People who are given a telephone appointment slot will be notified of this...
Ali v The Home Office [2022] EWHC 866 (QB) is a successful appeal against the Central London County Court’s decision to dismiss the false imprisonment claim of a recognised Afghan refugee, detained for 98 days under the Detained Fast Track process in 2015. Larry has previously covered the County Court decision, which...
Last August, the provisions in Schedule 10 of the Immigration Act 2016 providing for foreign national offenders liable to deportation to be subject to mandatory tagging as a condition of immigration bail were commenced. This provision was designed to implement the 2015 Conservative party manifesto commitment to “introduce satellite tracking...
On 7 February 2022 the Home Office updated Detention Services Order 02/2019 on Care and management of Post Detention Age claims. This policy sets out the approach to age dispute cases in immigration detention and applies to Home Office staff and its contractors. The last version of the policy (dated...
The High Court has thrown out a challenge arguing that the free legal advice given to migrants in detention centres is rubbish. Mr Justice Calver held that statistical evidence that many legal aid firms provide a poor service was unreliable and that “the system is, by and large, functioning well”....
In Kaitey v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 1875 the Court of Appeal has upheld the High Court’s decision that the power to set immigration bail exists even when a person cannot be lawfully detained. As Alex commented at the time of the High Court...
In R (Babbage) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWHC 2995 (Admin), the High Court found that a person with an extensive offending and adverse immigration history who posed high risks of re-offending and absconding was unlawfully detained because of the poor prospects of enforcing his removal...
On 21 October 2021 the Home Office published the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration’s (ICIBI) second annual inspection of the Adults at Risk policy, alongside its response. The report itself is an impressive piece of work and provides comprehensive information about the current state of immigration detention and...
The Supreme Court has this morning handed down judgment in R (Majera) (formerly SM Rwanda) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] UKSC 46. The appeal, as Lord Reed states in his opening sentence, raised a “question of constitutional importance”. That question was whether the government (or anyone...
The Home Office has been found in breach of its legal duty to protect HIV patients in its custody after officials left a Congolese man without his daily medication for several days. In what Mr Justice Bourne described as an “unedifying” spectacle, senior civil servants were unable to tell the...
An eight-month detention period for EU citizens is disproportionate, the Court of Justice of the European Union has decided. The case is C-718/19 Ordre des barreaux francophones and germanophone and Others. The case originated in the Belgian courts. Legislation in Belgium designed to facilitate the removal of unauthorised non-EU nationals,...
