Author Archive
Court of Appeal gives guidance on sentencing for small boats prosecutions
The Court of Appeal in R v Ginar [2023] EWCA Crim 1121 has given guidance on the appropriate criminal sentences for those convicted for the offence of arriving (or attempting to arrive) in the UK without entry clearance, contrary to section 24(D1) of ...
18th October 2023Book review: Against Borders: The case for abolition by Gracie Mae Bradley and Luke De Noronha
Imagine a scene. Prime Minister Liz Truss finds herself reading Free Movement blog tomorrow, sees the terrible harm her and her predecessors have been causing to documented and undocumented non-British citizens and decides to get rid of Britain’s bo ...
12th October 2022Damning report finds “systemic failures” of detention centres to identify harm
A damning report on healthcare and safeguarding in detention has concluded that the existing protocols for vulnerable detainees are “totally and utterly flawed”. The Medical Justice report Harmed not Heard focuses on the inadequacy of the Ru ...
4th May 2022High Court quashes “irrational” decision not to prosecute alleged traffickers
The High Court in COL v Director of Public Prosecutions [2022] EWHC 601 (Admin) has taken the Crown Prosecution Service to task for its decision not to charge the alleged traffickers of a victim of modern slavery. The claimant, a national of the Phil ...
30th March 2022New employer and landlord guides to ID checks
The Home Office has released a draft copy of updated guidance for employers on right to work checks, to kick in from 6 April. The guidance doesn’t contain much we didn’t know about already, but just to reiterate the key changes: For those with b ...
23rd March 2022Slashing support payments to potential slavery victims defied clear policy
The High Court has again taken the Home Office to task for its stingy approach to supporting vulnerable asylum seekers during the pandemic. In R (JB) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWHC 3417, the court held that the department un ...
12th January 2022NHS charging: basing treatment decisions on immigration status is lawful
The High Court in R (OK) v The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust [2021] EWHC 3165 has rejected another challenge to the operation of the NHS charging regulations. This claim for judicial review was brought by OK, a Nigerian man living in England ...
10th December 2021Brook House Inquiry hears from Panorama whistleblower
We are now in the second week of the public inquiry investigating the abuse of Brook House immigration removal centre residents in 2017. This week the inquiry will hear evidence from whistleblower Callum Tulley, whose undercover footage exposed a cult ...
29th November 2021The Immigration Act at 50: is it still up to the job?
Today marks a significant date in the immigration lawyer’s calendar: it is 50 years exactly since the Immigration Act 1971 received royal assent. Free Movement staff have planned a party to celebrate the occasion (not). The 1971 Act is the root of ...
28th October 2021National security court backs refugee in secret ruling
There is little that can sensibly be said about RT v SSHD SN/72/2019, heard by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC). In making its decision, SIAC rejected all of RT’s grounds for judicial review, but found in his favour anyway on t ...
14th October 2021Asylum seekers denied “essential living needs” during pandemic, finds High Court
In the case of JM v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWHC 2514, the High Court has held that the government failed to cater for asylum seekers’ essential living needs during the pandemic. The court found that JM, who was housed in ...
7th October 2021Book review: Border Nation by Leah Cowan
The now notorious conclusions of the Sewell Report on race relations in the UK are no doubt at odds with the experiences of many in this country, in particular migrant communities. Surprisingly, however, the report didn’t comment on Britain’s immi ...
20th May 2021Congolese man unlawfully detained for three and a half years
To a person in detention, particularly in prison, every day of freedom lost matters and the Defendant needs to be able to justify it. In this case I think that principle became lost to sight. So says the High Court in the case of Louis v Home Office [ ...
10th May 2021Asylum support during the pandemic: the year in review
Barred from working and mainstream benefits, for many in the asylum system their only option for money and shelter is by requesting support from the Home Office. A year into the pandemic, the asylum support system has seen significant changes. This ar ...
16th March 2021Lack of legal advice for migrants in prison ruled “discriminatory”
The High Court in SM v Lord Chancellor [2021] EWHC 418 (Admin) has held that free legal advice must be made available to immigration detainees held in prisons, bringing access to lawyers into line with the legal advice scheme operating in immigration ...
26th February 2021Upper Tribunal guidance on credible documentary evidence
The Upper Tribunal in QC (verification of documents; Mibanga duty) China [2021] UKUT 33 (IAC) has given useful guidance on how to approach documentary evidence submitted by asylum appellants. The tribunal has also clarified the circumstances in whic ...
23rd February 2021Court of Appeal rejects lowering threshold for denying refugee status to extremists
How serious must a person’s “extremism” be to justify exclusion from the Refugee Convention? Three years ago, the Court of Appeal in Youssef & N2 v Secretary of State for the Home Department lowered the bar for exclusion from the Co ...
14th January 2021Eight-month delay in sourcing bail accommodation “reasonable” during pandemic
In the case of Mahboubian v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWHC 3289 (Admin), the High Court decided that the Home Office couldn’t be held responsible for an eight-month delay in finding immigration bail accommodation for a high-r ...
14th December 2020London authorities refuse to cooperate in targeting of rough sleeping migrants
This week Immigration Rule changes targeting rough sleeping migrants came into force. The Home Office has confirmed that the new Rules will not be enforced until official guidance is published, but the changes have been met with defiance across the bo ...
3rd December 2020County Court takes dim view of Fast Track detainee’s false imprisonment claim
In Ali v Home Office EW Misc 27 (CC) [2020], the County Court robustly dismissed a false imprisonment claim brought by an Afghan refugee who was detained for 98 days under the Detained Fast Track process in 2015. County Court cases are rarely report ...
3rd December 2020Deporting gay asylum seeker a violation of Article 3, human rights court finds
In B & C v Switzerland (application no. 43987/16 and 889/19) the European Court of Human Rights has unanimously held that the deportation of asylum seekers to countries where they risk persecution for their sexual orientation would violate the Art ...
19th November 2020Online Right to Rent checks launch later this month
Right to Rent checks can be carried out online and in real time from 25 November 2020 onwards. Under the new scheme, landlords will be able to conduct checks on whether prospective tenants are permitted to rent using a Home Office webpage (not yet liv ...
9th November 2020Wildly unlawful bail policy gets only minor tweaks, for now
The Home Office has released new interim guidance on the immigration bail accommodation system. The 15-page document introduces a couple of minor changes to address the High Court’s damning criticism of the department’s bail accommodation poli ...
4th November 2020“Compassionate” Home Office targets rough sleepers, again
Following the failings identified by the Windrush Lessons Learned Review, Priti Patel promised a “compassionate… people first” Home Office. But over the past few months the Home Office seems to have entertained only the most inhumane imm ...
29th October 2020Bail accommodation system ruled “systemically unfair”
The Immigration Act 2016 brought about extensive changes to the support available to people on immigration bail. Since those changes came into force in January 2018, tens of thousands of people have struggled against the harsh new system, which has ke ...
1st September 2020“Alarming lack of oversight and accountability” at short-term holding facilities
The prisons inspector has recommended a national overhaul of the short-term detention system after an inspection of the Home Office’s 13 short-term holding facilities (STHFs). The report by the Chief Inspector of Prisons paints a picture of mism ...
25th June 2020Judge intervenes to end Home Office dithering over bail accommodation
In the case of Merca v SSHD [2020] EWHC 1479 (Admin) the High Court ordered the Home Office to release the claimant within four days. One week and two extension of time requests later, the Home Office has now complied with that order. Mr Merca, detai ...
23rd June 2020What is the difference between a “refugee” and an “asylum seeker”?
This piece is about refugees, asylum seekers, and the Refugee Convention. It outlines who can be a refugee, and how being a refugee and having “refugee status” are two very different things. We also explore the rights and entitlements avai ...
5th June 2020Immigration bail policy updated
The Home Office has updated its policy guidance on immigration bail, with a couple of changes to note. First, asylum seekers who have exhausted their appeal rights will no longer automatically be subject to study restrictions. This is the result of ...
3rd March 2020Don’t clog up the Admin Court with damages claims, warns Court of Appeal
The Court of Appeal in ZA (Pakistan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWCA Civ 146 has made a plea to lawyers to transfer their wrongful detention claims to the Queen’s Bench Division or County Court once the detention issue h ...
17th February 2020“Nothing inherently wrong” with healthcare system for vulnerable detainees in prison
The High Court has refused to extend key safeguards under the Adults at Risk policy to immigration detainees held in prisons. In MR (Pakistan) & Anor v Secretary of State for Justice & Ors [2019] EWHC 3567 (Admin), Mr Justice Supperstone decid ...
8th January 2020Upper Tribunal: no reason to change Sudan country guidance
The Upper Tribunal in AAR & AA (Non-Arab Darfuris – return) Sudan [2019] UKUT 282 (IAC) has rejected a Home Office attempt to resume returns of non-Arab Darfuris to Sudan. The tribunal upheld its previous guidance, reaffirming the position t ...
20th September 2019Immigration detainees must be given the “true reason” for their detention
A real mammoth of a case: R (HS) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWHC 2070 (Admin). The claimant took what looks like a kitchen sink approach to his unlawful detention claim, succeeding on the fourth ground: that he wasn’t gi ...
31st July 2019Court of Appeal demands individual proportionality assessments for EU citizens detained pending deportation
The Home Office cannot detain an EU citizen pending deportation without first considering whether detention is “proportionate and necessary” under EU law, the Court of Appeal has said in R (Lauzikas) v Secretary of State for the Home Depar ...
15th July 2019Court of Appeal quashes clearly unfounded certificate in Albanian asylum claim
This week the Court of Appeal quashed the certification of an Albanian asylum claim as “clearly unfounded”. In SP (Albania) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWCA Civ 951, the court found that the Home Office had not properly inv ...
21st June 2019