Free Movement Weekly Immigration Newsletter #70

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter!

The fallout from the white paper continues, unsurprising given the almost total lack of clarity in it. The Independent Monitoring Authority has had to put out a statement reassuring those with leave under the EUSS. By the looks of immigration message boards, MPs’ mailboxes are full of correspondence from those who are potentially affected, and a petition asking specifically that the skilled worker route to settlement is not doubled has over 100,000 signatures (there is no indication that only the skilled worker route would be affected). 

MPs are (fruitlessly) seeking clarity through written questions e.g. here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. This is not nearly all of them and only the ones raised in the Commons. The refusal to provide clarity in relation to those with leave in Appendix Hong Kong (BNO) seems particularly bizarre given the status of the route as one of the “bespoke” safe and legal routes offered to people instead of making them claim asylum

We now have a third judicial review challenging the good character guidance changes, this one from Phoenix Law in Northern Ireland,. A written question has gone in on how many people have been refused because of illegal entry since the changes. I very much doubt that will be answered properly, but I would guess that the answer is none because a) the Home Secretary will be trying to avoid a claimant who actually has a refusal and b) people will be deterred from applying while the situation is so unclear.

The changes continue to have no deterrent effect on people arriving across the Channel and the horrendous death toll continues to rise as two more people died last week.

On the blog, John Vassiliou and one of his employment colleagues have written a very useful briefing for employers who have employees who are on (or about to be on) section 3C leave. There is still an incredibly low level of understanding by employers on this topic and hopefully this will help both them and the affected employees. 

It was also stats day last week and there were a few case write ups, a deprivation case in the Supreme Court, as well as a visitor visa challenge in the Court of Appeal and this one in the Upper Tribunal which as you can probably tell annoyed me quite a bit. 

For everything else on Free Movement and elsewhere, read on (I particularly recommend the first two stories in the “what we’re reading” section).

What we’re reading

How the British Red Cross tried to blow the whistle about conditions inside crisis-hit migrant detention centres – Independent, 18 May

Special Forces officer blocked 1,585 Afghans from UK – BBC News, 23 May

Call for freeze on Syrian asylum claims to end – BBC News, 26 May

Another Windrush generation man has UK deportation order revoked – The Guardian, 27 May

UK Border Force is in effect under military command, report says – The Guardian, 25 May

Slow Academia, Understanding, and Critique: Moving Beyond Emotions – Border Criminologies, 23 May

Increasing number of Afghan allies waiting for homes in UK – Independent, 22 May

Home Office issues apology to NI construction firm over ‘erroneous and false’ allegation about illegal workers – Belfast Telegraph, 22 May