Free Movement Weekly Immigration Newsletter #45

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter!

The National Audit Office reported last week that the Home Office managed to buy the asbestos contaminated Northeye for a mere £9 million pounds more than it had been sold for the year before. The site was intended to be used as asylum accommodation but the Home Office took various shortcuts during the purchasing process which led to serious issues being overlooked. The site remains (thankfully) out of action.

A report published last week by the Centre for Social Policy Studies on the no recourse to public funds restriction found a clear link between NRPF and poverty. The report made several recommendations including better data collection and publication, reducing either the cost of applications for further leave to remain or reducing how frequently the applications need to be made (to five years instead of every two and a half) and an end to the automatic reimposition of NRPF status on people who have previously had the condition removed.

It is worth pointing out that the latter should not be automatic as the Home Office is supposed to consider each time whether or not to impose the NRPF condition, however in practice this is often not done properly or at all, and unlawful reimpositions take place regularly. Improved safeguards are needed. 

People with pending EUSS applications continue to be caught out by travelling before their applications are decided. Everyone who has a pending application should read our post from September on the changes that were made earlier this year in relation to travelling.

Apparently only 5 out of 123 requests for people to give oral evidence to the employment tribunal from overseas have been accepted since 2022, and 95% of last year’s seasonal workers came from countries that did not accept these requests. These figures were revealed in this article looking at the barriers faced by seasonal workers in trying to challenge their treatment via the tribunal system.

On Free Movement, we have two spots left for our next OISC level 1 live training course, starting in January. On the blog, there was this very interesting case where the Home Office’s unlawful withdrawal of a person’s asylum claim meant that the refusal to reconsider the negative trafficking decision was held to be unlawful. There were also a couple of Court of Appeal decisions, one was an unsuccessful challenge to an employer penalty notice and the other a procedural one on time limits and certain notices of decision.

I took the Law Society’s immigration and asylum reaccreditation exam last week. I am glad to have that done and no longer hanging over my head, so I do recommend doing it sooner rather than later. I wrote up what I did to prepare and my thoughts on the whole process which I hope you will find helpful if also doing the exam.  

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

Cheers, Sonia

What we’re reading

No Escape: On the frontlines of climate change, conflict and forced displacement – UNHCR, November 2024

The Migration Museum’s Annual Lecture 2024: Does the story of migration shape its future? – British Future, 14 November

Thousands left without protection from slavery in Employment Rights Bill loophole – Independent, 14 November

Offshore detention makes it 20 times more likely asylum seekers will suffer PTSD, Australian study finds – The Guardian, 11 November

Former RAF base to house hundreds more migrants after Starmer vowed to close it – iNews, 12 November

Ready, Willing and Able: Latest report sets out economic benefits to letting survivors in the NRM have access to work – Kalayaan, 13 November

NGO statement in response to the Migration Strategy in Poland and in support of the right to international protection – International Rescue Committee, 14 November

Italy’s Albania asylum deal has become a political disaster for Giorgia Meloni – The Guardian, 14 November

The people behind the headlines – Nicola Kelly’s Substack, 12 November

UK charity declares ‘refugee homelessness emergency’ as numbers hit record high – The Guardian, 14 November

Another rushed migration bill would give the government sweeping powers to deport potentially thousands of people – The Conversation, 17 November