Free Movement Weekly Immigration Newsletter #44

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter!

As predicted, “small boats week” didn’t exactly dominate news coverage last week, despite reports of further deaths. A couple of articles worth reading are Lizzie Dearden’s one on Home Office officials’ doubts over the government’s small boats plan and Enver Solomon in the Guardian on why “smash the gangs” just won’t work.

Hot off the press, it appears that a judicial review challenging the 11 March 2024 changes to the immigration rules preventing care workers from bringing their children and partners has been granted permission.

I know we were all looking in the other direction, but Australia had quite the week on the immigration detention front following the High Court holding that the regime of curfews and ankle tagging was unconstitutional. The government responded by introducing new draft legislation that seek to expand the use of offshore detention. There is a full explainer here and there has also been a lot of coverage in the Guardian. As ever, it is generally a good idea to keep a bit of an eye on what they are getting up to down there, as our countries continue to compete in the race to the bottom on asylum policy.

On Free Movement, there is one week to go until Colin’s webinar on making successful bail applications. Speaking of Colin, he has been to see the new Paddington movie and you can read his immigration lawyer’s review here. 

Last week we covered an unsuccessful challenge to the denial of appeal rights where late EUSS applications are rejected. We have also updated our posts on permission to work applications for those in the asylum systems and how to apply for a skilled work visa to take account of recent changes.

I also wrote up this case of an OISC adviser who had their registration cancelled and lost the appeal against that decision. Reading this at the same time as going through the reaccreditation process for the Law Society’s scheme myself does make me wonder about the lack of a similar process to ensure that OISC advisers remain up to date. The administration of the reaccreditation scheme leaves much to be desired, but I do think that the underlying principle of testing advisers’ competence on an ongoing basis is important. 

For everything else on Free Movement and elsewhere in the past week, read on.

Cheers, Sonia

What we’re reading

Stemming the Tide: The Case for Demarketising the Legal Aid Sector – ILPA blog, 6 November

Vulnerable asylum seekers need lawyers. Here’s how Labour can fix the legal aid scandal – Big Issue, 5 November

What does the new legal risk guidance for government lawyers mean? – Institute for Government, 7 November

Number of Americans looking to live abroad jumps by 1,500% after Trump wins election – Independent, 9 November

Death in UK immigration removal centre is the first believed to be linked to the drug spice – The Observer, 10 November

Serco loses Australian immigration services contract, shares down over 12% – Reuters, 8 November

Private Prison Companies Call Trump’s Deportation Plans ‘Unprecedented Opportunity’ – Huffington Post, 8 November

UK asylum system retraumatises women fleeing sexual abuse, says report – The Guardian, 7 November

Judge strikes down Biden administration program shielding immigrant spouses from deportation – AP, 8 November

Home Office seeks new chief to speed up deportations of failed asylum seekers and visa overstayers – The Standard, 8 November