Author: Sonia Lenegan

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Sonia Lenegan

Sonia Lenegan is an experienced immigration, asylum and public law solicitor. She has been practising for over ten years and was previously legal director at the Immigration Law Practitioners' Association and legal and policy director at Rainbow Migration. Sonia is the Editor of Free Movement.

Fordham J has given some guidance on handling issues relating to the e-filing of judicial review applications in the Administrative Court, stating that this may be something the Administrative Court User Group wishes to consider, or further online guidance provided. The case is R (BLV) v Secretary of State for...

4th July 2025
BY Sonia Lenegan

As trailed in the immigration white paper but mysteriously absent from last week’s statement of changes, the skilled worker route is being overhauled with a view to far fewer people being able to use it. Yes that’s right, a mere week after the last lot, we have yet another statement...

1st July 2025
BY Sonia Lenegan

The High Court has rejected a judicial review challenging the Home Secretary’s refusal to consider an application made outside the rules. In doing so, the court rejected the argument that the Home Secretary should create a specific application form for leave outside the rules under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance...

27th June 2025
BY Sonia Lenegan

A new statement of changes to the immigration rules (HC: 836) has been published today and before your adrenaline gets going I can tell you that unlike some of the more recent ones, there are no immediate changes being made. As ever, the explanatory memorandum is a useful read but...

24th June 2025
BY Sonia Lenegan

Recently a Ukrainian national got in touch with me to raise concerns about mass refusals of asylum/humanitarian protection claims within the community. As I have been predicting for a while, he told me that many people have been driven into the asylum system through a fear of being forced to...

24th June 2025
BY Sonia Lenegan

The 11th edition of the essential Macdonald’s Immigration Law & Practice has been published. The first edition was published by the late, great, Ian Macdonald QC in 1983 and the most recent edition in June 2021. Updating this comprehensive handbook is a huge and important undertaking, the general editors for...

23rd June 2025
BY Sonia Lenegan

The mantra of “safe and legal routes” is regularly repeated by the government when justifying increasingly draconian legislation in an attempt to prevent refugees from travelling to the UK under their own steam. The argument is that refugees should use these safe and legal routes instead of arriving in small...

20th June 2025
BY Sonia Lenegan

The Court of Appeal has issued a welcome corrective to the tribunals, telling them not to impose an “unrealistic evidential burden” on asylum applicants who claim that they are subject to monitoring by their home government. The case is MH (Bangladesh) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2025]...

13th June 2025
BY Sonia Lenegan

The latest report from Dr Jo Wilding, “No Access to Justice 2” looks at the continuing immigration and asylum legal aid crisis. This is an update to her 2022 report and includes a region by region analysis of demand and provision. In the 2022 report, London was the only region...

12th June 2025
BY Sonia Lenegan

An appellant who is a Yemeni national who has lived in China since he was one year old has lost his appeal against the refusal of humanitarian protection on the grounds that he can return to China, despite the absence of evidence that China would grant him entry. The court...

11th June 2025
BY Sonia Lenegan
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