Author Archive
Deprivation of citizenship for fraud after Begum
In Ciceri (deprivation of citizenship appeals: principles) [2021] UKUT 238 (IAC), the Upper Tribunal has applied the guidance given in R (Begum) v Special Immigration Appeals Commission [2021] UKSC 7 to deprivation of citizenship appeals on grounds ...
27th September 2021Court of Justice decision on cessation of protection for Somali refugees
In the case of C-255/19 Secretary of State for the Home Department v OA, the Court of Justice of the European Union held (at paragraph 64) that: 1. Article 11(1)(e) of Council Directive 2004/83/EC of 29 April 2004 on minimum standards for the qualific ...
2nd February 2021Briefing: nationality and children in care
In August, Nath Gbikpi reported for Free Movement on R (Y) (Children In Care: Change of Nationality) [2020] EWCA Civ 1038. In that case, the Court of Appeal found that section 33 of the Children Act 1989 did not entitle the local authority to appl ...
6th October 2020Windrush: learning about history, learning from history
Recommendation 6 – The Home Office should: a) devise, implement and review a comprehensive learning and development programme which makes sure all its existing and new staff learn about the history of the UK and its relationship with the rest of the ...
8th July 2020When is a policy not a policy? Tribunal tackles law on disclosure
BH (policies/information: SoS’s duties) Iraq [2020] UKUT 189 (IAC) was the case of an Iraqi Kurd, heard by the Upper Tribunal sitting in Edinburgh. The issue was whether the First-tier Tribunal judge had erred in law because he had not considere ...
22nd June 2020Upper Tribunal grants refugee family reunion outside the Immigration Rules
KF et ors (entry clearance, relatives of refugees) Syria [2019] UKUT 413 (IAC) concerns an 18-year-old Syrian refugee sponsor, whose mother, father and younger siblings applied for family reunion with him. The key principles identified by the tribunal ...
3rd March 2020Home Office fails to disclose file note vital to unlawful detention case
Article 2(n) of the Dublin III regulation provides: Member States shall not hold a person in detention for the sole reason that he or she is subject to the procedure established by this Regulation. When there is a significant risk of absconding, Membe ...
5th December 2019What happens when a deportation order is served on a 17-year-old EEA national detained in prison?
Regulation 33 of the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016 (SI 2016/1052) does not wrongfully exclude the ordinary principles applicable in interim relief applications. It does not exclude them at all. So held Mr Justice Murray in R (Y ...
16th August 2019Home Office disclosure failings: “out of the norm”?
An integral part of the procedure of suing for damages is disclosure. Where Home Office disclosure is inadequate or incomplete, it is necessary to go on pressing for compliance with rule 31 of the Civil Procedure Rules and for specific disclosur ...
25th January 2019Rolling review can be appropriate, Court of Appeal holds
Many of us have been in the situation where, having challenged the opening of a removal window without a decision having made on an outstanding human rights claim, an 11th hour decision comes from the Secretary of State, along with submissions that ou ...
14th December 2018Less is more: tribunal criticised for overly long judgments
A client’s statement “I was foolish to…” in a witness statement is sometimes the starting point for the submission “My client is not clever enough to lie/to lie to the extent alleged by the Respondent”. It is an uncomfortable submission t ...
27th November 2018Upper Tribunal’s error of law reasoning can very rarely be altered when a decision is re-made
In AZ (error of law: jurisdiction; PTA practice) Iran [2018] UKUT 245 (IAC) the determination makes heavy weather of restating some settled principles of law and practice. The judge granting permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal had raised the q ...
8th August 2018Litigation privilege in the First-tier Tribunal
Those who were present at the recent Administrative Law Bar Association breakfast meeting on costs in judicial review will recall Alison Pickup, Legal Director of the Public Law Project, reminding us that Judicial Review in the Upper Tribunal is not t ...
26th July 2018Court of Appeal explains protection duty after Home Office loses trafficked child
In R (TDT, by his litigation friend Tara Topteagarden) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA Civ 1395 the Court of Appeal considered the threshold at which the duty to protect trafficked persons under article 4 of the European Conve ...
20th June 2018Can war criminals be expelled or excluded under EU law? It depends
The enhanced protection in Article 28(3) of Directive 2004/38/EC — that a person may only be expelled on “imperative grounds of public security” if they have resided in a member state for ten years prior to the decision to expel them — ...
9th May 2018Carriers’ liability: Ryanair challenges the Secretary of State – and loses
In Ryanair v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA Civ 899 the budget airline, no stranger to litigation, challenged the imposition of a £2,000 fine on it for carrying a man from Germany to the UK who, said the Secretary of State, ha ...
1st May 2018Government stance on residence permits for trafficking victims declared unlawful
The Court of Appeal has held in PK (Ghana) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA Civ 98 that the criterion of “compelling personal circumstances” for a grant of limited leave as a trafficked person in the Secretary of State ...
14th February 2018Unaccompanied children and Dublin III: the latest instalment
In R (RSM (A Child)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA Civ 18 the Court of Appeal considered the ambit of Article 17 of the Dublin III regulation, the so-called “discretionary clause”, and found it to be narrow indeed. The c ...
26th January 2018Trafficking victim wins £260k damages, does not see a penny
How can you win £266,536.14 in damages and walk away without a penny? If those who should pay succeed in divesting themselves of their assets and if the costs of litigation swallow up all that you do manage to recover. R (Tirkey) v The Director of Le ...
10th January 2018Rescue or empowerment? High Court considers definition of trafficking
Most domestic workers would prefer to be recognised as workers than labelled as trafficked, and ask to be empowered rather than rescued. But it is often necessary to plead their cases under the rubric of trafficking to secure their protection from exp ...
12th December 2017Dental x-rays in age assessment: art not science
Upper Tribunal Judge Rintoul’s elegant, succinct summary of the law on age assessment, with which he opens the determination in R (AS) v Kent County Council (age assessment; dental evidence) [2017] UKUT 446, reminds us that pinpointing the age of a ...
27th November 2017Anti-trafficking victories in Supreme Court: Reyes and Benkharbouche
Today, Anti-Slavery Day, the Supreme Court has handed down judgments in cases that look at the extent to which diplomatic and state immunity allow diplomats to traffic and enslave their domestic workers with impunity. Traffickers will sleep a little ...
18th October 2017