All Articles: Human rights

Unfair trial abroad

In the case of Kapri v The Lord Advocate (representing The Government of the Republic of Albania) [2013] UKSC 48 the Supreme Court has given

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Chikwamba delivers again

Last month saw the advent of a very useful decision from the High Court concerning the lack of provision in the Immigration Rules to allow

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May be wrong

Theresa May this weekend launched a blistering and unprecedented attack on ‘a minority of judges’, accused them of ignoring the will of Parliament by refusing

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Translation of Singh v Belgium

After seeing the Strasbourg case of Singh v Belgium (33210/11) highlighted here on Free Movement, Balkrishna Gurung of Howe + Co Solicitors (with assistance from David

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The New Rules

When I attempted to read Kafka’s The Castle I gave up halfway* through on the basis that the castle K strives to reach was a

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Should I stay or should I go?

The Hegelian dialectic is sometimes expressed as thesis followed by anti-thesis followed in turn by synthesis. Over time, compromise is the outcome. A tendency towards

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One rule for the rich

The Government’s plan massively to increase the minimum income threshold required to sponsor family members to the UK came one step closer yesterday with the publication

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Last week, the Supreme Court handed down judgment in Patel, Alam & Anwar v SSHD [2013] UKSC 72, in which Lord Carnwath decided a number of important points affecting the way in which such Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights ‘fallback’ arguments are to be decided.

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25th November 2013
BY Anthony Vaughan

The Court of Appeal has held that a different test applies to children in human rights health cases. These difficult cases involve a person seeking to remain in the UK in order to receive life-saving medical treatment not available in his or her home country. The recent case of Rose...

23rd October 2013
BY Colin Yeo

As noted in last week’s lengthy missive, the challenges to removals to Greece continued after the decision of the ECtHR in KRS v United Kingdom [2008] ECHR 1781 culminating in the decision that such removals were unlawful in MSS v Belgium and Greece [2011] ECHR 108. The news of the...

23rd October 2013
BY Greg Ó Ceallaigh

Theresa May spent over a year saying her new immigration rules would weaken Article 8 rights for “foreign criminals” but conceded the point within a day at the Court of Appeal. MF (Nigeria) v SSHD [2013] EWCA Civ 1192 makes clear that the Immigration Rules governing deportation now provide a...

22nd October 2013
BY Omar Shibli

The case of Rose Akhalu (health claim: ECHR Article 8) [2013] UKUT 400 (IAC) offers a glimmer of hope to some migrants dependent on health care in the UK facing removal. These cases can involve people being sent to their country of origin to die an avoidably early and unpleasant...

11th September 2013
BY Colin Yeo

In SS (Malaysia) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2013] EWCA Civ 888 a child’s Christian mother had fled with the child from Malaysia after the father said he was to convert to Islam, fearing that their child would be brought up a Muslim not a Christian. The...

19th July 2013
BY Colin Yeo

In the case of Kapri v The Lord Advocate (representing The Government of the Republic of Albania) [2013] UKSC 48 the Supreme Court has given guidance on the application of the ‘flagrant breach’ test for determining whether a court process abroad is so dysfunctional that removal to face that process...

16th July 2013
BY Colin Yeo

The Administrative Court declared that a policy which does not give effect to section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 is not lawful. The excellent Amanda Weston of Tooks Chambers for the Claimants and Joanne Rothwell of No 5 Chambers for the intervener, Coram Children’s Legal Centre...

18th June 2013
BY Ripon Akther

Last month saw the advent of a very useful decision from the High Court concerning the lack of provision in the Immigration Rules to allow migrants in the Points-Based System to switch whilst in-country into a PBS dependent category: Zhang, R (on the application of) v SSHD [2013] EWHC 891...

28th May 2013
BY Sarah Pinder

For the second time in as many months, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has dismissed a direct discrimination claim brought by a migrant domestic worker against her employer. In this case and an earlier case, the Claimants were Nigerian nationals who had come to the UK on domestic worker visas...

24th May 2013
BY Richard Bennett

This post by Frances Meyler and Sarah Woodhouse, Co-Directors of the Liverpool Law Clinic, School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool, examines some of the arguments that might be put forward in an application for an ‘Exceptional Case Determination’. It focuses on articles 6 and 13 of the...

26th April 2013
BY Free Movement

The High Court has endorsed the controversial approach of the Upper Tribunal towards the new immigration rules on human rights. Mr Justice Sales, drawing on concessions made by the Home Office, has found that the correct approach is a two stage one whereby the rules must first be considered and...

18th April 2013
BY Colin Yeo

Not a high number In 2012, 0.48% of cases against the UK succeeded before the European Court of Human Rights. Interesting fact sheet from Strasbourg on UK cases.

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16th April 2013
BY Free Movement

A batch of new Upper Tribunal cases have been approved as safe for general consumption by the reporting committee. I posted up three of them yesterday as new short-form ‘link format’ posts with no real commentary, but I wanted to highlight the case of Farquharson (removal – proof of conduct)...

9th April 2013
BY Colin Yeo

In the case of Eweida v UK [2013] ECHR 37 the European Court of Human Rights famously dismissed three out of four religious discrimination applications while managing to appear sympathetic to the cause of religious freedom. The case concerned the right to manifest one’s religious views at work. The only claimant...

19th March 2013
BY Colin Yeo

Email in from David Jones at Garden Court Chambers: Just wanted to drop you a line as it has been flagged up to me that Mark Wray v SSHD [2010] EWHC 3301, a case with which I have been involved, has been relied on in judgments to support interference with...

13th March 2013
BY Free Movement

Theresa May this weekend launched a blistering and unprecedented attack on ‘a minority of judges’, accused them of ignoring the will of Parliament by refusing to deport foreign criminals. Remarkably, she said that: A minority think it is their role to determine whether or not foreigners who commit serious crimes...

18th February 2013
BY Free Movement

The Upper Tribunal has yet again rejected the government’s contention that new Immigration Rules define and delineate the extent of the United Kingdom’s human rights obligations. The latest case is Ogundimu (Article 8 – new rules) Nigeria [2013] UKUT 60 (IAC) but it follows on from two other recent determinations,...

11th February 2013
BY Colin Yeo

The latest report by John Vine, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, was published this week. It concerns applications to enter, remain and settle in the UK on the basis of marriage and civil partnerships and the summary of recommendations is that the UK Border Agency: Assesses all...

31st January 2013
BY Sanaz Saifolahi

Statement of Changes HC 820 was laid before Parliament yesterday, 12 December 2012, to come into effect today, 13 December 2012. You need look no further than the fact that this is the ninth Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules this year alone if you need to know what...

13th December 2012
BY Colin Yeo

In the case of R (on the application of Omar) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2012] EWHC 3448 (Admin) (30 November 2012) the High Court has held that charging a fee for a human rights based immigration application will itself breach human rights law where the individual...

10th December 2012
BY Colin Yeo

After seeing the Strasbourg case of Singh v Belgium (33210/11) highlighted here on Free Movement, Balkrishna Gurung of Howe + Co Solicitors (with assistance from David Saldanha) has commissioned a translation and offered to share it with blog readers. Many thanks! The key paragraphs concerning the authentication of the documents...

14th November 2012
BY Colin Yeo

The Upper Tribunal has rejected the Government’s attempt exhaustively to define the scope and meaning of Article 8 private and family life in the controversial new immigration rules introduced in July 2012. The case is MF (Article 8 – new rules) Nigeria [2012] UKUT 00393 (IAC) and the result will...

31st October 2012
BY Colin Yeo

On Tuesday this week the Court of Appeal handed down two important new cases on deportation. The first is Mohan v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2012] EWCA Civ 1363 and concerns the interaction of family and immigration law. The second is R (on the application of George)...

26th October 2012
BY Colin Yeo

In a case that in some ways exceptional but in many ways entirely ordinary, the UK Border Agency this week rejected an asylum claim by a young Afghan man. The reason the case was exceptional is that he had previously worked with the British armed forces and been horrendously injured...

4th October 2012
BY Colin Yeo

  As the third in a series of blog posts on the radical new July 2012 immigration rules we turn now to the Home Secretary’s attempt to “define” the right to family and private life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which is incorporated into our...

15th August 2012
BY Claire Physsas

Two cases were reported very recently from the Upper Tribunal both looking at the impact of family court proceedings and orders on immigration proceedings and vice versa. The first case of Nimako-Boateng (residence orders – Anton considered) [2012] UKUT 00216(IAC) is dealt with in this post leaving the second case...

10th July 2012
BY Sarah Pinder

When I attempted to read Kafka’s The Castle I gave up halfway* through on the basis that the castle K strives to reach was a metaphor for the text of the book itself, which was impenetrable. I tried to tell myself afterwards that Kafka had not wanted me to reach...

9th July 2012
BY Colin Yeo

The recent Supreme Court cases of HH, PH & BH [2012] UKSC 25 did not concern the deportation or expulsion of one or both parents, but rather their extradition. In HH, an European Arrest Warrant had been issued in respect of a Polish mother of 5 children, aged between 21...

5th July 2012
BY Julia Gasparro

Fresh off the press is the Government’s Statement of Intent: Family Migration which proposes not just to change but to direct the way in which the UKBA and Courts decide Article 8 cases. FM has recently discussed whether it is legally permissible to do this but, for the time being...

13th June 2012
BY Iain Palmer

Not very soft at all. Paragraph 364 of the Immigration Rules, which governs both the UK Border Agency and to a significant extent the immigration tribunal and courts, states that, subject to human rights law (an important proviso), there is a presumption in favour of deportation where the Home Office...

10th June 2012
BY Free Movement

The BBC is today reporting that Theresa May intends on Monday to introduce new guidelines telling judges what to think about Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 8 is the right to a private and family life and is worth quoting in full: 1. Everyone has...

10th June 2012
BY Free Movement

Some time ago, I put up an angry post (it is never a good idea to publish in anger) about the case of GS (Article 3 – health exceptionality) India [2011] UKUT 35 (IAC), in which it was held that a diabetic man on dialysis who would be painfully and...

17th May 2012
BY Free Movement

In an interesting recent ruling, (Zarkasi v Anindita & Anor [2012] UKEAT 0400_11_1801) the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) considered an appeal from a trafficked domestic worker whose claim for unfair dismissal against her employer had been dismissed by the Employment Tribunal (ET). The ET had held that the contract of...

22nd March 2012
BY Richard Bennett

The Court of Appeal has in the case of Miah v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2012] EWCA Civ 261 rejected the idea of there being a free standing ‘near miss’ argument in immigration cases where the applicant falls just short of the requirements of the rules. As...

14th March 2012
BY Free Movement

He said it so sympathetically, it made it all the worse: “This is a fast moving area of law, we understand that, but you might want to take a look at a case we reported last week.”   That was last month now, the speaker was President Mr Justice Blake...

13th March 2012
BY Colin Yeo

In D v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2012] EWCA Civ 39 (31 January 2012) the Court of Appeal upheld the determinations of both the First Tier and Upper Tribunals in finding the Maslov ‘very serious reasons for justifying the expulsion of a foreign national’ criterion (Maslov at...

13th February 2012
BY Iain Palmer

The Government has finally gotten around to amending the Immigration Rules to make them a bit less human rightsy looking. This follows a number of pledges from David Cameron, Theresa May and Damian Green to do so. Paragraph 395C of the rules is to be deleted, as predicted here on...

20th January 2012
BY Free Movement

The Hegelian dialectic is sometimes expressed as thesis followed by anti-thesis followed in turn by synthesis. Over time, compromise is the outcome. A tendency towards the middle ground can often be seen in human rights case law and immigration policy. A radical new case is handed down or law is...

25th November 2011
BY Free Movement

The Government’s plan massively to increase the minimum income threshold required to sponsor family members to the UK came one step closer yesterday with the publication of a report by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC). The full report can be accessed here. Analysis by Alan Travis of The Guardian can...

17th November 2011
BY Free Movement
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