The Court of Appeal has dismissed a claim for damages against the Home Secretary for a five month delay in granting refugee status, following a successful appeal, to a person with severe mental health issues. The case is FXJ v Secretary of State for t ...

The Home Office must reconsider an application in the now closed Turkish business person route after an poor initial decision to refuse was then compounded by flawed decision making on administrative review and in the subsequent judicial review. The c ...

The Court of Appeal has dismissed a case on the basis that it does not have jurisdiction to hear it following the changes to section 11A of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, made by the Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022. This was an ap ...

Our October immigration round up is here and as we recorded shortly after the Supreme Court’s decision in the Rwanda litigation we included discussion of that at the beginning. Do keep listening after that though, as Colin and I cover everything ...

It has been a bumper day for statistics, as the Office for National Statistics and the Home Office have published their latest quarterly figures covering all aspects of immigration and asylum. Contrary to the government’s line that their Rwanda ...

The High Court has told the government that they should not be routinely redacting the names of civil servants when disclosing documents in the course of judicial review proceedings. The substantive judicial review challenge is to the Houses in Multip ...

The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal against the deportation of a mother with a British citizen child, finding that their separation would not be “unduly harsh”. The case is FN (Burundi) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] E ...

The Court of Appeal has agreed with the High Court and dismissed an appeal on a point of statutory interpretation regarding when the right of abode was acquired through a person’s parent. The case is Indran Murugason, R (on the application of) v ...

The Court of Appeal has sent a case back to the Upper Tribunal for reconsideration after a failure to properly consider article 8 and the making of a material error in relation to the appellant’s husband’s nationality. The case is Gurdeep ...

The Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal from the Upper Tribunal (IAC) against the refusal of an asylum claim by an Iraqi man whose claim was partly based on a risk of violence because of his relationship with his girlfriend. The case is ASO (Iraq) v ...

A new report comes with a stark warning: “As the number of sponsored migrant workers rises every quarter, the issue of migrant labour exploitation is only likely to increase”. Work Rights Centre, a charity that works to support migrants and disadv ...

The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal where it was argued that evidence from an earlier judicial review should not be admitted to proceedings in the First-tier Tribunal due to late disclosure by the Home Office. The case is Kanhirakandan v The S ...

The Court of Appeal has dismissed the government’s appeal in Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v AT (AIRE Centre and Independent Monitoring Authority intervening) [2023] EWCA Civ 1307, meaning that people with pre settled status under App ...

Draft regulations have been laid which will add India and Georgia to the list of ‘safe’ countries at section 80AA of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002. The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 (Amendment to List of S ...

Permission has been granted in a judicial review case where an Albanian man claiming asylum had his claim certified on the basis that he was from a ‘safe country’, meaning that he was not allowed to appeal. There was also an unlawful deten ...

We are looking to recruit more specialist freelance contributors to Free Movement. If you can write fluently, you are interested in being read by a wide audience and you are fascinated by immigration law and practice then have a think about ...

On 27 September 2023 the Solicitors Regulation Authority published a “warning notice” for solicitors carrying out immigration work, causing some alarm within the sector. Specifically, concerns were raised about the SRA stating that solicit ...

As anticipated, the latest published trafficking statistics covering July to September 2023 show a substantial reversal in the number of refusals at reasonable grounds stage, although these are still far higher than before the Nationality and Borders ...

The Court of Appeal has reiterated the process that should be followed in article 3 medical treatment cases in relation to the shifting burden of proof, as set out in AM (Zimbabwe) v SSHD [2020] UKSC 17 and in the headnote to the Upper Tribunal&# ...

Biometric residence permits, due to expire at the end of December 2024, are to be replaced with “eVisas“. Home Office guidance explains that people will need to register and set up an online account so that they can view and share relevant ...

The House of Lords’ Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee has published a report criticising the Home Office on two fronts. This is in relation to Draft Immigration (Age Assessments) Regulations 2023 and linked Draft Justification Decision (Scien ...

In this podcast, Jamila Duncan-Bosu of the Anti-Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit discusses how the seasonal agricultural workers scheme facilitates exploitation, the barriers to people raising complaints about their treatment, and what the gov ...

A new commencement order has been made today that will bring further provisions of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 into effect. The Nationality and Borders Act 2022 (Commencement No. 7 and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2023 means that par ...

UNHCR has published their recommendations on how the Illegal Migration Act 2023 should be implemented in order to bring it “closer to conformity with the UK’s international obligations”. UNHCR is explicit that its position remains th ...

On 16 January 2024 or later, the immigration health surcharge will increase from £470 per year to £776 per year for children, students, their dependants and youth mobility workers. The charge will increase from £624 per year to a whopping £1,035 p ...

Our September roundup is here, featuring the latest statement of changes and new parts of the Illegal Migration Act 2023 being brought into force. We also discuss the Brook House inquiry, the Rwanda litigation, new immigration fees and illegal working ...

It appears that we may start seeing changes in overseas visa processing centres soon, after TLScontact was unsuccessful in an attempt to stop the Home Office from entering into a new contract with VFS Global. The case is Teleperformance Contact Ltd v ...

The National Audit Office has today published a report ‘Investigation into the Homes for Ukraine scheme’, looking at what has been achieved to date, for what cost and what can be learned from the scheme. As indicated, the report looks only at the ...

The Home Office has conceded the latest in an increasingly long line of cases challenging the operation of the no recourse to public funds policy. This challenge was to the refusal to lift the no recourse condition from a person with section 3C leave ...

The Home Office has issued new guidance on the removal of asylum support from people who decline to move onto the Bibby Stockholm barge (update: as of 24 October 2023 it appears this guidance has been taken down, archived version is here. Second updat ...

The Court of Appeal has upheld a decision made the Home Secretary to deprive a person of their British citizenship on the basis that it was obtained by dishonest concealment of a material fact. Namely, that the appellant did not disclose what appeared ...

The Home Secretary has today announced the appointment of Eleanor Lyons as Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, after leaving the role vacant for 18 months. Ms Lyons is currently the Deputy Children’s Commissioner and will start her new role o ...

We had slightly over 1,100 responses to our 2023 Free Movement reader survey. A big thank you to everyone who took the time to respond. We really appreciate it. Every single response has been read and considered. As we did last time, we’ve trie ...

Here is our August roundup and the first podcast with Sonia both leading and at the editing helm (eek!). This month we cover statistics, illegal working fines, asylum support, homeless refugees, adult dependent relatives, some EUSS updates and all thi ...

The Migration Advisory Committee has recommended that the shortage occupation list is abolished and that people in the asylum system with permission to work are allowed to work in any role. These are some of the recommendations in the full review of t ...

Back in “Small Boats Week” during the summer, the government announced the tripling of employer penalties for illegal workers to £45,000 per worker. The immigration minister said that the increase was necessary because “making it ha ...

Last year 1,334 people came to the UK and claimed asylum based on their sexual orientation, amounting to 2% of all asylum claims. A lot of them are probably feeling quite frightened this morning after the Home Secretary has chosen to single them out f ...

Staff working at Brook House immigration removal centre were verbally and physically abusive towards the people who were detained, including the use of extremely racist language. There were 19 incidents of inhuman and degrading treatment of people at ...

The government has published the new application fees previously announced earlier this year. The statement describes the increase as being made “to pay for vital services and allow more funding to be prioritised for public sector pay rises̶ ...

The most recent Border Force People Survey reveals “a dissatisfied workforce which is a breeding ground for insider risk to grow and become insider acts, enabled by privileged access”. That is according to a new report from the Independent ...