Refugee and Migrant Justice, formerly known as the Refugee Legal Centre, has gone into administration today. As a lawyer specialising in immigration and family work I have no idea what this means in commercial terms and whether it is now too late to save the organisation. What I do know...
The new Government is making it a requirement that all spouses coming to the UK will need to know a minimum level of English. That wasn’t in the coalition immigration policy document. I wonder what else they have up their sleeves that wasn’t trailed? This is a major development, initially...
No-notice removals have been suspended following a legal challenge brought by Medical Justice. The no-notice policy has been covered here previously and was the subject of a damning judgment by Mr Justice Collins when two children were taken from foster care by UKBA without warning for same day removal. The policy was...
The more detailed coalition government programme is now available. The immigration section doesn’t look too bad so far but is, inevitably in a general purpose document of this nature, very sketchy. The commitment to ending child detention for immigration purposes looks pretty firm, though. There has been considerable scepticism expressed...
There was another story on the scarcity of Home Office Presenting Officers, this time in The Sunday Times. I’ve blogged about this before. They do seem to be a bit of an endangered species at the moment, and unlike most animals on the endangered list also seem to be well...
No responsible politician or political party would have a section of their manifesto for the coming election entitled ‘Crime and Immigration’, thereby lumping the two issues (and sets of people) together in an unholy juxtapositioning that plays right into the hands of the BNP, Migration Watch and their kind. But that...
In the really very small world of UK immigration websites, someone has seen fit to set up another one called Free Movement. I’ve tried politely getting in touch but have received no response. It seems that there has been some sort of bust up at NCADC and the legendary John...
This falls firmly into the gossip category. Please accept my apologies, the more serious minded amongst you. There have been a number of barristers moving chambers recently. It is such a small world that it is just about worthy of mention, I reckon. The first move involved a number of...
This is brilliant. Looks like a fun day at the Public Enquiry Office to me. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfQbvn2ACzc] It is In Your Hands by Charlie Winston, and apparently it reached the top ten in France. Many thanks to the correspondent who brought this to my attention. Not only are the lyrics and video...
Hugh Southey of Tooks Chambers, Stephen Knafler of Garden Court Chambers and Raza Husain of Matrix have all been appointed Queen’s Counsel, the highest accolade for a barrister. All three do plenty of non immigration work, I believe, but are very well known and respected in immigration circles. It is...
I’m reluctant to post on this as it causing so much anger in the sector at the moment and spilled blood seems quite possible right now. I’d rather it wasn’t mine. In order to undertake publicly funded immigration work, a person must be accredited by the Law Society. To get...
It seems that news of this has circulated fast. After what must be fifteen years at the helm, former Tory MP Keith Best is departing the Immigration Advisory Service to take up the prestigious job of Chief Executive of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. Keith...
The new president of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber of the new Upper Tribunal has been announced: Mr Justice Nicholas Blake QC. The appointment is effective as of 15 February 2010, when the unlamented Asylum and Immigration Tribunal is merged into the rest of the tribunal system. The choice of...
The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) is currently consulting on the regulation of immigration advisers. Or, more accurately, the de-regulation of immigration advisers. It is illegal to give immigration advice in the UK unless the adviser is a member of an exempted profession (mainly solicitors and barristers) or...
My my, one gets more comments on The Guardian website than on Free Movement! I’ve been busy in court all day (on a non immigration case) and get back to find that there were 87 comments on the short piece I’ve done for Liberty Central at The Guardian’s website. I...
A tad sensationalist, I know, but true enough, you will find. The Chief Inspector of UKBA, John Vine, just published his report on the UKBA visa operation at Abuja. The findings are that the operation is poor: The ‘service’ represents poor value for money for customers. High fees are paid...
The policy instruction to UKBA staff on the sinister sounding Human Provenance Project (who cooked this name up, for heaven’s sake?) has changed yet again. The link on my last post on this still works, but the document it links to has changed and now reads as follows: Alterations have...
Further to my earlier post on the alleged relaxing of asylum rules, see the Government response to media claims: Asylum seekers – government response 09 October 2009 The government has responded to claims in the media that up to 40,000 asylum seekers will be allowed to stay in the United...
The Daily Telegraph has claimed that there is a new policy that asylum seekers may be granted settlement after a wait of four to six (or possibly eight) years following a quiet change to immigration policies. The policy is allegedly set out in a memo The Telegraph claims to have seen...
It looks like UKBA have suspended the isotope analysis testing programme ominously called The Human Provenance Project. A revised policy instruction has been placed on the UKBA website simply saying that it has been ‘temporarily suspended’. It is doubtful whether it will be resurrected, though, as this is Government-speak for...
I’m sorry to harp on about this and will return to some substantive legal blogging next week (there’s been a fairly lengthy change to the rules that I haven’t even looked at yet, for starters). I can’t help noticing that UKBA have rather changed their tune, and certainly their tone,...
I’m sitting on the fence on this one. One the one hand it would be a tragedy if someone of Baroness Scotland’s talents and background were sacked over a silly law like this one. On the other, her departure might serve to prove just how silly that law really is....
The media coverage on this story has been interesting. The Telegraph is running a short story that is actually quite sympathetic to employers who break the law. Many seem to be revelling in the fact that Baroness Scotland helped to pass the law she may or may not have broken....
I’ve heard a couple of reports of dissent in different ranks this week. Firstly, I’ve heard from two separate sources that UKBA is imposing a ‘success’ rate of 85% on Home Office Presenting Officers, the officials who represent UKBA in the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal. By success I mean getting...
On a day where there are several appalling linked stories in the press about the horror and misery of true trafficking (here, here and here), I was sorry to read the Home Office attempting to claim false credit for a trafficking criminal conviction. The press release in question is dated...
I was very sorry to hear last week that Sir Henry Hodge, President of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, has died. He was a genial, very affable man, with an amused twinkle almost always in his eye. AIT stakeholder meetings and the like were made all the more bearable by...
Wending my way north on the train at an ungodly hour this morning, I found my reserved seat was opposite a fellow immigration lawyer I know from times past. We had a gossip, and he tells me that he was recently at Processions House, the temporary home of the Senior...
The Home Office have announced that they plan to impose all sorts of new requirements on European Community law applications for documentation proving the right to residence. I’ve copied the press release into the post below in case it vanishes later. These new requirements would without doubt be unlawful if...
In some ways it was heartening to read yesterday and this morning about the Government climbdown on the Gurkhas. There is a universal recognition of the injustice of the Government’s previous positions. Personally, though, I can’t help thinking of all the other cases and groups that haven’t received the same...
Few will lament its passing, announced today by still Immigration Minister Phil Woolas. The news is far from unexpected, but the details are interesting. The plan is for the new system to be implemented by early 2010. A full consultation response has also been published. Immigration appeals will be transferred into...
This Hello! style headline is perhaps the clearest sign yet that the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal will be abolished and amalgamated into the unified tribunal. The Home Office planning documents now state that the AIT will be scrapped, the AIT stakeholder meetings keep getting postponed and now the President of...
There was an interesting article in The Telegraph last Saturday about immigration appeal hearings that go ahead with no Home Office Presenting Officer (HOPO or PO) present to defend the Home Office or Entry Clearance Officer position. I’m not quite sure from where the headline came, though, as there are...
Someone brought this job advert to my attention. It’s been fun writing this blog and representing immigrants and asylum seekers, but duty calls. You have to be part of it to change it, as Steve Cohen undoubtedly would not have said. I’m confident I’ll get the job and very much look...
I was very sad to hear that Steve Cohen has died. Some of the obituaries that have been published so far can be found here: Indymedia London Red Pepper Institute of Race Relations Steve Cohen was one of the legendary giants of immigration law. I never met him nor did I...
The flunky that writes the Home Office press releases really needs to tone it down and get a grip. One of the latest batches of press releases is entitled ‘Tough new rules target bogus colleges and education cheats‘. The words ‘bogus’ and ‘cheats’ are very strong indeed. Yet there is...
A new Operational Guidance Note for Zimbabwe has been published by the Home Office. These OGNs are basically central guidance to asylum decision-makers in the Home Office. They contain the Home Office policy on what categories of person from different countries might qualify for asylum. The new Zimbabwe OGN is...
Just heard this at court this morning. Apparently fire broke out at 3.40pm yesterday. Did I notice a thing on the way home, which takes me just past there? I did not. Sounds like no-one was hurt, happily, and that there was a proper conflagration on the top floor. There...
It very much looks like the AIT is about to be scrapped and merged into the new unified Tribunals Service. This is something I posted on way back in September and it now looks very likely to happen. The new system applies to all tribunal work except immigration and asylum....
