Author Archive
Home Office has no power to vary High Court bail conditions
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 ...
23rd May 2022The UK Youth Mobility visa
The Youth Mobility Scheme is one of the friendlier parts of the Immigration Rules. The route is designed to enable people aged 18-30 to live and work in the UK and is relatively straightforward to apply for, at least compared with other options for ec ...
20th January 2022Human rights damages claims can be transferred from Upper Tribunal to County Court
The Upper Tribunal has decided that it has the power to transfer damages claims resulting from judicial review proceedings to the County Court. The tribunal held that its incidental powers mirror those enjoyed by the High Court, which routinely transf ...
10th January 2022Court of Appeal tells SIAC to pay more respect to Home Office on national security
Secretary of State for the Home Department v P3 [2021] EWCA Civ 1642 is about how much SIAC should defer to the Home Secretary’s view about national security concerns. The answer is quite a lot, but not too much. The background to this case is t ...
26th November 2021Give trafficked asylum seekers permission to stay, says High Court
The decision in R (KTT) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWHC 2722 (Admin), widely reported in the mainstream press this week, is a massive result for trafficking victims. The High Court has concluded that a trafficking victim who i ...
15th October 2021Asylum seeker right to work policy declared unlawful, again
There has been another successful challenge to the policy on asylum seekers undertaking paid work. In R (Cardona) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWHC 2656 (Admin), the High Court has declared that Home Office policy on this issue ...
6th October 2021No blanket relief for appellants denied hearing under unlawful pandemic guidance
At the outset of the pandemic, on 23 March 2021, Upper Tribunal President Lane issued guidance for making deciding immigration appeals “on the papers”, without an oral hearing. As all immigration practitioners know, oral hearings are essen ...
27th September 2021Confirmed: dependency for extended family members must be unbroken
In Chowdhury v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 1220, the Court of Appeal has confirmed that where an extended family member applies for an EEA residency card, their period of dependency on their EEA citizen sponsor must have ...
17th August 2021Court of Appeal lays down hyper-strict approach to EU asylum claims
ZV (Lithuania) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 1196 is an important case about the admissibility of asylum claims made by EU citizens. There is a long-standing rule that asylum claims by EU nationals will only be considere ...
11th August 2021Supreme Court upholds Home Office age assessment policy
The Supreme Court has upheld the policy of treating asylum seekers who claim to be children as adults if two Home Office officials think that the person looks significantly over 18. The case is R (BF (Eritrea)) v Secretary of State for the Home Depar ...
2nd August 2021Upper Tribunal rebuked for failing to understand its job (again)
The Court of Appeal has rebuked the Upper Tribunal for reversing an immigration judge’s decision without identifying an error of law. The Upper Tribunal’s jurisdiction to allow an appeal from the First-tier Tribunal depends on having first ide ...
24th June 2021Home Office accidentally discriminates against trafficking victims with kids
The High Court has declared that an anomaly in the benefits system which disadvantages victims of trafficking who receive asylum support is discriminatory and in breach of Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Unusually, the Secretary ...
2nd June 2021Trafficking authorities not experts on trafficking says criminal Court of Appeal
The Court of Appeal’s Criminal Division has concluded that Home Office trafficking decisions are not admissible in criminal proceedings. Brecani v R [2021] EWCA Crim 731 concerned a 17-year-old convicted of taking part in a conspiracy to supply ...
1st June 2021Criminality undermines strong private life case in deportation appeal
In KM v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 693, the Court of Appeal concluded that someone with an otherwise “strong” case for remaining in the UK based on their private life might not have a “particularly str ...
20th May 2021Lack of Rule 35 process in prisons is unlawful, Court of Appeal finds
The judgment of the Court of Appeal in MR (Pakistan) v Secretary of State for Justice & Others [2021] EWCA Civ 541 marks a major step forward in the battle over the use of immigration detention in prisons. The court has decided that the absence of ...
19th April 2021Human trafficking to be covered by the Adults at Risk policy
The Home Secretary has laid a new draft of the Adults at Risk statutory guidance before Parliament. The new version marks a significant change in how trafficking victims fit within the policy framework for detaining vulnerable people. At present, the ...
6th April 2021Court of Appeal criticises ambiguous language in immigration tribunal judgments
In Secretary of State for the Home Department v Starkey [2021] EWCA Civ 421 the Court of Appeal provides a helpful reminder of the need for very clear language when explaining how evidence has been examined and assessed. The immigration tribunal’ ...
31st March 2021Human rights court criticises CPS for prosecuting trafficking victims
The European Court of Human Rights has looked for the first time at when the prosecution of a human trafficking victim might violate Article 4 of the Convention. In VCL and AN v United Kingdom (application nos. 77587/12 and 74603/12), it sharply criti ...
16th February 2021Unusual costs decision against the Home Office
In R (Mozumder) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 138, the Court of Appeal has dealt with an unusual costs issue arising from the furore over alleged cheating in English language tests. The issue was how costs should be ap ...
12th February 2021Home Office given 48 hours to release immigration detainee despite coronavirus
In an interim relief decision the High Court has ordered the release of an immigration detainee within 48 hours, indicating that judges will not allow the Home Office to use the pandemic as cover to justify long “grace period” delays in re ...
10th February 2021Upper Tribunal has no jurisdiction to correct appeal deadline error
Ndwanyi (Permission to appeal; challenging decision on timeliness) Rwanda [2020] UKUT 378 (IAC) is about how a respondent can challenge a decision that an application for permission to appeal is in time, when in fact it is not in time. In this case th ...
29th January 2021Deportation appeal not a “dress rehearsal” says Court of Appeal
Lowe v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 62 is about the role of the Upper Tribunal in deportation appeals. The role of an appellate court when reviewing the findings of fact made by the court below sounds straightforward: it ...
27th January 2021Minor offence can trigger deportation, human rights court confirms
The European Court of Human Rights has confirmed that the final offence committed by someone before deportation action is taken against them does not need to be particularly significant if they have a history of serious offending. In Munir Johanna v D ...
21st January 2021High Court bail for vulnerable detainee
The High Court has ordered the release on bail of a detainee who is subject to deportation action but suffers from serious mental health problems. Full judgments at the interim relief stage are relatively unusual so R (RS) v Secretary of State for the ...
20th January 2021Criminal Court of Appeal ignores immigration judge’s trafficking determination
In BTT v R [2021] EWCA Crim 4 the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) required a man appealing a conviction for growing cannabis to give oral evidence about his account of human trafficking. It then relied on this evidence to depart from the Upper Tri ...
18th January 2021Tribunal defines “historic injustice”
Lawyers are prone to creating “terms of art”, i.e. a phrase which has a specific meaning within a particular branch of law, distinct from its usage in ordinary English. In Patel (historic injustice; NIAA Part 5A) India [2020] UKUT 351 (IAC ...
12th January 2021Court of Appeal confirms no consultation duty for NHS advance charges
In R (MP) v Secretary of State for Health And Social Care [2020] EWCA Civ 1634, the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court’s decision that there was no need for the government to consult the public before introducing advance charging of overseas ...
22nd December 2020Expert report finds room for improvement in UK’s statelessness system
The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, has today released a new report auditing the Home Office’s procedure for deciding statelessness applications. The audit finds that there is considerable room for improvement in how the UK processes applicati ...
16th December 2020High Court finally calls time on asylum accommodation delays
Everyone who works with asylum seekers knows that the Home Office system for providing accommodation is not fit for purpose. In R (DMA and Others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWHC 3416 (Admin) the High Court has finally and emp ...
15th December 2020New Civil Procedure Rules on translating witness statements catch claimant out
In April 2020, the Civil Procedure Rules were updated with significant changes made to the rules about witness statements filed by non-English speakers. The new rules are of obvious interest to immigration lawyers and Diamond v Secretary of State for ...
9th December 2020Major Upper Tribunal judgment on draft evaders and Ukraine
The Upper Tribunal has handed down a new country guidance decision on draft evaders from Ukraine, PK and OS (basic rules of human conduct) Ukraine CG [2020] UKUT 314 (IAC). The judgment contains important guidance on the relationship between the Refug ...
7th December 2020How does Brexit affect Irish citizens in the UK?
The UK government’s policy is that Brexit will not affect Irish nationals at all. Other EU citizens have to apply for a new “settled status” or risk losing their right to live and work in the UK after June 2021. But the government’s position i ...
20th November 2020No special protection against prosecution for trafficking victims outside Modern Slavery Act
In R v A [2020] EWCA Crim 1408, the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) has confirmed that the creative use of the abuse of process jurisdiction to protect trafficking victims from prosecution is no longer necessary in light of the Modern Slavery Act ...
13th November 2020The Immigration Act 2020
The Immigration Act 2020 has arrived. The new legislation — the full title of which is the Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Act 2020 — passed into law today, 11 November 2020. The Act is much shorter than any o ...
11th November 2020Court of Appeal backs judge who ordered asylum seeker brought back to the UK
The Court of Appeal has rejected an attempt by the Home Office to overturn a High Court order to bring an asylum seeker who had been removed under the unlawful Detained Fast Track system back to the UK. The case is R (PN (Uganda)) v Secretary of State ...
29th September 2020Tribunal says no general risk to Nuba in Sudan
KAM (Nuba – return) Sudan CG [2020] UKUT 269 (IAC) is the first country guidance decision about the risk to the Nuba people on return to Sudan. The Upper Tribunal’s main finding is that there is no general risk to Nuba in either their home ...
22nd September 2020Challenge to Brook House detention conditions rebuffed by High Court
The High Court has refused a challenge to the conditions at Brook House Immigration Removal Centre in 2017 on all grounds. This is despite the Home Office having made a number of changes to the regime provided by G4S since then in response to criticis ...
25th August 2020Man accused of tax dishonesty fails to get old appeal reopened
In R (Akram) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWCA Civ 1072, the Court of Appeal has confirmed the high bar for reopening old judgments. The appellant tried to reopen an old judicial review in which he had challenged the refusal of ...
20th August 2020Out of country appeals do not breach GDPR, says Court of Appeal
In Johnson v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWCA Civ 1032, the Court of Appeal has determined that there is no breach of the General Data Protection Regulation involved in hearing human rights appeals from abroad via video link. Mr ...
13th August 2020What is the Adults at Risk policy?
After the Hardial Singh principles, the Adults at Risk policy is the most important source of law for securing the release of people from immigration detention. It provides a detailed framework for assessing the vulnerability of detainees and balancin ...
5th August 2020