Author: Sonia Lenegan

Picture of Sonia Lenegan

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.

The Upper Tribunal has dismissed the appeal of an EEA national who was in prison over the Brexit deadline of 31 December 2020 on the basis that he was not exercising treaty rights immediately prior to the end of the transition period. The case is Manyo (EEA deportation, Imprisonment at...

25th November 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

Don’t say I didn’t warn you with that headline. The Upper Tribunal has found that the First-tier Tribunal erred in failing make a finding on whether revocation of leave for a refugee on the grounds that he was deemed a danger to the UK amounted to a breach of the...

22nd November 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

HM Chief Inspector of Prisons has published a report of an unannounced inspection of Brook House immigration removal centre. The inspection took place between 5 and 22 August 2024 and does not make pretty reading. The last inspection took place in June 2022. Since then, of the four tests for...

21st November 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

The quarterly trafficking statistics for July to September 2024 have been published, with a few records set including for the number of referrals and number of conclusive grounds decisions. The impact of the latter on delays is still difficult to tell because of the reorganisation of cases within the decision...

20th November 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

The High Court has held that an unlawfully withdrawn asylum claim can amount to exceptional circumstances meaning that an extension of time should be granted for a reconsideration request of a trafficking decision. The case is R (KM) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 2870 (Admin)....

18th November 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

As promised, I have taken the Law Society’s Immigration and Asylum senior caseworker reaccreditation exam. I passed but definitely have some notes on where a couple of questions could be improved (Law Society – call me!). Below I explained a bit more about how it works and have set out...

15th November 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

The Court of Appeal has held that where a notice of decision fails to advise an applicant of their right of appeal a refusal in breach of the Immigration (Notices) Regulations 2003, the time limit for appealing does not start to run. The consequence of that in this case, R...

14th November 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

The Court of Appeal has held that “a simple statement to an employer that one of the people working for it has no right to work” is sufficient for the purposes of section 15(1) Immigration Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 when issuing an employer penalty notice. The case is Akbars...

13th November 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

Colin’s back! But for how long? All is revealed in our October roundup podcast. Plus Sonia and Colin discuss hot topics such as the new practice direction for appeals in the First-tier Tribunal, appeals backlogs, issues in asylum interviews and reaccreditation for the Law Society’s immigration and asylum scheme. We...

12th November 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan

The High Court has dismissed a challenge to changes made to late applications to the EU Settlement Scheme which removed the right to appeal where it is not accepted that the applicant had a good reason for applying late (i.e. where the application is rejected as invalid, rather than being...

8th November 2024
BY Sonia Lenegan
Login
Or become a member of Free Movement today