Free Movement Weekly Immigration Newsletter #98

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! 

On Wednesday this week a Council of Europe meeting will take place at which there is expected to be discussion around “reinterpreting” article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Because of the reporting I have seen around this, and will no doubt see more of this week, I think it is important to note that the government’s stated target is not the “torture” element of article 3 but the “inhuman and degrading treatment” part.

Focussing attention on the part of article 3 which is not at risk is unhelpful. The asylum paper singles out healthcare needs, specifically mental health cases, as being the reason that reform is needed, so it seems to be cases such as MY (Suicide risk after Paposhvili) that the government is seeking to exclude from protection under article 3.

I was very pleased to see the Migration Observatory’s piece on issues with published Home Office data last week. And on that note, as I first identified in August this year and highlighted again in November, we finally have confirmation from the Home Office that the statistics on asylum claims based on sexual orientation are currently not being published, with no firm date for their return. The Home Office is being extremely cagey about the data that is missing because of this systems change (which surely cannot be limited to these cases) and it remains unclear whether it will remain missing once publication resumes. Anyone with questions may want to try here.

On Free Movement, I think today’s post on the vicarious trauma of practitioners is a particularly timely one given the shockwaves that are still reverberating through the migrant community after the recently announced increase to refugee settlement periods and earned settlement proposals. Trying to advise desperately worried people when many of the proposals are vague at best, and without any certainty as to what is going to happen and when and who will actually be affected, does have an impact on lawyers and so please do have a read.

Also on the blog, we now have the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 after Royal Assent was given last week. I did a quick post on the Home Office writing out to Syrian refugees with pending settlement applications after I could see panic spreading fast last week. 

There were a couple of case write ups including this one on sponsor licence revocation and a very useful Court of Appeal decision on the need for the Home Office to exercise flexibility in decision making, in this case in a Windrush application. 

If you are not already among the 500 ish members who have signed up for our free earned settlement webinar on Wednesday, then you can do that here. For everything else on Free Movement and elsewhere, read on. 

Cheers, Sonia

What we’re reading

Criminalisation at European Borders and the Role of Artificial Intelligence – Border Criminologies, 8 December

Launching our new annual data briefing 2025: Understanding destitution and homelessness in the asylum and immigration system – NACCOM, 4 December

‘He asked me what I’d done sexually with a woman’: how Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor turned her asylum grilling into a film – The Guardian, 2 December

Exclusion by Design: Digital Identification and the Hostile Environment for Migrants – Migrant Voice, 5 December

UK-EU youth mobility scheme could let tens of thousands live and work abroad – The Guardian, 5 December

Top UK scientist says research visa restrictions endanger economy – BBC News, 5 December

Rising racism blamed for collapse in number of foreign nurses coming to UK – The Guardian, 5 December

Will the Fair Work Agency put immigration enforcement before workers’ rights? – Work Rights Centre, 3 December

Hardline migration policies are fuelling people smuggling, report finds – The Guardian, 4 December

Epping council loses bid over Home Office intervention – BBC News, 2 December

What UK immigration reforms mean for vulnerable migrant communities – EU Reports, 2 December