Author Archive
Making defendants give their nationality “undermines criminal justice”
The requirement for criminal defendants to give their nationality in court is corrupting the justice system and gives the impression of bias against ethnic minorities, a new report has found. Commons, a non-profit criminal defence firm, says that the ...
19th May 2020Coronavirus could create more refugees, EU report warns
The coronavirus pandemic could cause more refugees to flee to Europe, a European Union report has warned. The European Asylum Support Office says that an ISIS resurgence and other conflicts linked to the outbreak may see European countries handling mo ...
19th May 2020Legal aid changes for online immigration appeals “will do irreparable harm”
Immigration lawyers are warning that changes to legal aid for appeals lodged online during the coronavirus pandemic “will do irreparable harm”. The Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA) says that adjustments to legal aid ...
19th May 2020It just got more difficult for EU nationals to become British citizens
The Home Office has decided to make it more difficult for European residents to become British citizens. EU citizens with settled status who apply for naturalisation may now have to provide evidence that they have been living in the UK legally, accord ...
18th May 2020European Commission accuses UK government of violating EU citizens’ rights
The European Commission has formally accused the UK government of breaching EU law on free movement of people. Brussels today launched “infringement proceedings” against the UK, the process used to force EU member countries to comply with ...
14th May 2020Immigration Bill back in Parliament on 18 May
Listeners to the Free Movement podcast may have heard us mention the Immigration Bill on the last episode. The second reading was scheduled for 21 April, and we thought (and said) that it would go ahead remotely despite the coronavirus disruption. In ...
14th May 2020High Court rules against government on no recourse to public funds
The High Court has ruled that the government must make it easier for migrants to access the welfare system if they are about to become destitute. In an oral ruling delivered this morning, Lord Justice Bean and Mr Justice Chamberlain found that Home Of ...
7th May 2020Home Office tries to lean on judges deciding immigration bail cases
The Home Office tried to put pressure on judges to stop releasing migrants from immigration detention, it has emerged. An official letter from the department to a top immigration judge said that the Home Office was “somewhat surprised” tha ...
6th May 2020Social workers must help children in care get EU settled status
The Home Office has published some guidance on helping children in care apply for post-Brexit immigration status through the EU Settlement Scheme. It reminds social workers that they must either apply on the child’s behalf, or help older childre ...
4th May 2020Court of Appeal rejects Ankara Agreement settlement rights appeal
The Court of Appeal has rejected an appeal by Turkish business owners challenging a reduction in their settlement rights. The case is R (Alliance of Turkish Business People Ltd) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWCA Civ 553. Self-em ...
4th May 2020Home Secretary brushes off fears about legality of coronavirus visa extensions
More on the mysterious legal power that the Home Secretary claims to have to grant automatic visa extensions to foreign NHS workers. Asked about the legal basis for automatic extensions by MPs on the Home Affairs Committee this morning, Priti Patel sa ...
29th April 2020Judgment published in Detention Action coronavirus case
Last month’s High Court ruling on coronavirus and immigration detention is now available: R (Detention Action & Anor) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWHC 732 (Admin). Detention Action, a charity, launched a judicial revi ...
28th April 2020Government wins Right to Rent appeal
The government has won its appeal against last year’s High Court decision that the Right to Rent policy is unlawful. The case is Secretary of State for the Home Department v R (Joint Council for The Welfare of Immigrants) [2020] EWCA Civ 542. In ...
21st April 2020Foreign nationals are eligible to be furloughed
The government’s furlough scheme went live today, 20 April 2020. Under what is officially known as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the state will pay 80% of staff wage costs (up to £2,500 a month) so long as employers keep people on the b ...
20th April 2020No knowing how many Europeans will be left unlawfully resident by Brexit, experts warn
There is no way of telling how many EU citizens will be left living illegally in the UK because of Brexit, a new report has concluded. The Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford says that the government doesn’t collect or release the ...
16th April 2020Home Office evicted asylum seeker with COVID-19 symptoms
The Home Office evicted an asylum seeker with mental health problems and symptoms of COIVD-19, leaving him on the streets for over a week, it has emerged. The man has since been rehoused by order of the High Court, but his lawyers say the incident is ...
9th April 2020More powers for Upper Tribunal’s employed lawyers
The Senior President of Tribunals has issued a new Practice Statement on the powers of lawyers who work directly for the Upper Tribunal. The document replaces an older version from December 2013. The new one “widens the functions delegated to UT ...
8th April 2020Migrant rights charity faces “serious financial crisis” and possible closure
A leading migrants’ rights charity says that it will close “in the next few months” unless an emergency fundraising appeal succeeds. Consonant, the newish name for what was Asylum Aid and the Migrants Resource Centre, says that it is ...
6th April 2020Not unfair to proceed with hearing after appellant’s lawyer stormed out, tribunal finds
Arshad Bano’s appeal for leave to remain in the UK on human rights grounds was listed for 13 December 2018, with documents to be submitted no later than five days in advance. She provided a statement on 10 December, a couple of days late. In res ...
2nd April 2020Recruitment opens for 14 new immigration judges
No sooner is the last batch of immigration judges through the door than the authorities are seeking to recruit more. Around 40 new judges were named to the immigration and asylum chamber of the First-tier Tribunal over the last few months, but the Jud ...
31st March 2020Immigration bar protests “unworkable” remote hearing arrangements
Barristers working in the immigration tribunal say that emergency measures to keep hearings going are “unworkable”. Members of the immigration bar have written to First-tier Tribunal President Michael Clements to express deep concern about ...
31st March 2020Home Office aims to completely rewrite “confusing” Immigration Rules by January 2021
The Home Office has accepted the need to simplify the “complex and confusing” Immigration Rules and says that the work is already underway. In an official response to the Law Commission’s recent report on the subject, the department ...
25th March 2020Windrush review calls for root and branch reform at the Home Office
What caused the Windrush scandal? According to an independent review by Wendy Williams, published today, the answer lies in increasingly harsh immigration and nationality legislation over the past 60 years. These laws — including those dedicated ...
19th March 2020Government issues desultory update on EU child refugee talks
Once upon a time, the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 required the government to “seek to negotiate” a deal with the EU on family reunion for child refugees. Without such a deal, the looming end of the Dublin III arrangements will mak ...
17th March 2020Legal battle to stop Home Office dispatching a 10-year-old for female genital mutilation
The High Court has granted a Female Genital Mutilation Protection Order in the case of a 10-year-old girl who the Home Office is trying to remove to Bahrain. The case is A (A child) (Female Genital Mutilation Protection Order Application) [2020] EWHC ...
13th March 2020“Genuine chance of being engaged” test for retaining EU worker status found unlawful
EU citizens do not have to prove that they have a “genuine chance of being engaged” in order to retain worker status under European Union law, the Upper Tribunal has held. The case is KH v Bury MBC and SSWP [2020] UKUT 50 (AAC). Martin Wil ...
12th March 2020Home Office abandons “centre of life” test in Surinder Singh cases
The Home Office has updated its guidance on Surinder Singh cases to remove all reference to a “centre of life” test. This follows the case of ZA (Reg 9. EEA Regs; abuse of rights) Afghanistan [2019] UKUT 281 (IAC) in which the Upper Tribu ...
10th March 2020Funding extended for EU Settlement Scheme charities
The Home Office has announced an extension of funding to help vulnerable EU citizens to apply for settled status. £8 million will be made available for charities and councils working to get people through the EU Settlement Scheme in 2020/21, a slight ...
6th March 2020Government publishes Immigration Bill 2.0
An Immigration Bill will be introduced to the House of Commons later today, the government has announced. It is expected to be similar to the one introduced in 2018 by then Home Secretary Sajid Javid, which ultimately lapsed when the Johnson governmen ...
5th March 2020Home Office brags about success of entrepreneur visa it abolished a year ago
Check out this hilarious bit of spin in the Home Office’s “factsheet” on yesterday’s immigration statistics: …the UK continues to be a desirable location for the brightest and best around the world… The number of hi ...
28th February 2020Independent review of EU Settlement Scheme released
The Home Office is “managing relatively comfortably” with the millions of European residents applying for post-Brexit settled status, a long-awaited review has found. The department finally published the results today of an inspection of t ...
27th February 2020Asylum backlog continues to rise
The number of people with pending asylum cases has risen by almost 50% in just the last 12 months, new Home Office figures show. Over 56,000 asylum seekers and their dependants were awaiting an initial decision or further review at the end of 2019, co ...
27th February 2020Adult step-children of EU citizens don’t qualify for family member residence cards
Ronnie Latayan came to the UK from the Philippines on a visit visa in 2004 and has been here ever since, through multiple unsuccessful applications for further leave to remain. Now 46, Ms Latayan lives with her mother, a naturalised British citizen wi ...
26th February 2020Yarl’s Wood operator Serco to take over G4S-run detention centres
Outsourcing firm Serco is to take over two immigration removal centres run by rival G4S, the Home Office has announced. The Hampshire-headquartered company, which already runs the notorious Yarl’s Wood detention centre, will take over Brook Hous ...
20th February 2020Government abandons “Australia-style” immigration system
The government has released a few more details of what it calls a “points based system” for immigration to the UK after Brexit. To balance out the impending end of free movement of workers from the European Union, it would allow employers ...
19th February 2020EU citizens’ rights during the Brexit transition period
The Public Law Project has a new briefing on EU citizens’ rights during the transition period. It says: The main takeaway is that throughout the transition period, until 31 December 2020, almost all EU rules will continue to apply in the UK. The ...
18th February 2020Former immigration lawyer named Attorney General
Suella Braverman was appointed Attorney General today, replacing Geoffrey Cox QC. She is only the second woman to become the government’s chief legal adviser. The role also involves oversight of the Crown Prosecution Service and Government Legal ...
13th February 2020Home Office wrongly put people refused “right of abode” down for removal
The Home Office incorrectly put long-term UK residents on a removal list for the best part of a year, the immigration inspector has found. In a report published yesterday, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration reveals that for mos ...
13th February 2020Shamima Begum loses statelessness argument against citizenship deprivation
Shamima Begum is a citizen of Bangladesh and so would not be made stateless by being stripped of her British citizenship, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission has held. The main SIAC judgment is Shamima Begum (Preliminary Issue : Substansive) [2 ...
7th February 2020Public must be told how controversial visa streaming tool works, immigration inspector says
The Home Office should release more details about a “cryptic” computer programme that scores visa applicants as high, medium and low risk, the immigration inspector has recommended. David Bolt says that while applicants labelled high risk ...
6th February 2020