Free Movement Weekly Immigration Newsletter #52

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter!

The OISC rebrand to Immigration Advice Authority happened last week. The timing of all this is not amazing given the amount of time that organisations are currently wasting trying to navigate the new online portal process introduced in October.

Problems reported by people include an inability to create the log ins (tech problems such as with pop ups being blocked by browsers), the app failing to scan ID documents and wildly inappropriate requests for information (including five years of CPD records, how much is owed on a person’s mortgage, when a current account was opened, very detailed personal records for trustees, etc). I am unaware of any public commuications from the authority addressing any of the issues.

James Conyers at Refugee Action has set up a reporting form for problems to provide evidence ahead of a meeting with the advice authority later this month, so please can people use that. This work is not funded and so depending on the volume of responses James may not be able to go through all of them – but being that overwhelmed would in and of itself be useful evidence of the extent of the problems.

RAMFEL has provided an update on the section 3c which was successful in the High Court last year. The Court of Appeal has granted the Home Secretary permission to appeal and in the meantime has also granted a stay on the requirement to roll out digital status to everyone with section 3C leave.  The hearing is expected to take place in summer this year.

On Free Movement, we are supporting the “Week of Statelessness in the UK” initiative by several NGOs which aims to raise awareness of the challenges stateless people face. Asylum Aid are in court this week with an important challenge on family reunion for stateless people. We will also have an updated post on making statelessness applications this week and remember that we have training, free to members, on this little understood area. For more information including recommendations for change, you can refer to this briefing published today.

Back to the blog, the December roundup podcast is out, we had this important update on guidance changes for sponsored workers and if you work on removal judicial reviews then read this write up of a case relating to charter flight correspondence, involving a CPR breach by the GLD. Jed Pennington wrote this update on the Manston inquiry which has been upgraded and will hopefully start soon. Note that the deadline for this Legal Manager role at The Unity Project has been extended, do check it out.

For everything else on Free Movement and elsewhere, read on. 

Cheers, Sonia

What we’re reading

Woman stranded in Brazil after airline ‘refuses to allow her to board flight home to UK with eVisa’ – Independent, 19 January

UK rollout of eVisas hit by problems facing foreign nationals and refugees just two weeks in – Independent, 14 January

Revealed: Conservatives spent £134m on never-used IT systems for failed Rwanda scheme – The Observer, 18 January

Inside the Home Office as mistrust grows over Labour’s small boats plan – The i Paper, 14 January

Irregular migration into EU drops sharply in 2024, EU border agency says – Reuters, 14 January

Councils ‘keen’ to help Home Office move asylum seekers out of hotels – The Guardian, 14 January

Charity staff ‘harassed’ after Musk shares X post – BBC News, 13 January

Anas Sarwar: “I’m Not Willing To Wait For Someone Else To Fix Our Problems” – PoliticsHome, 13 January