This month, Colin and Sonia mainly talk about an avalanche of asylum-related news, law and updates. It’s not all asylum, though, there’s also some blog posts to go over on Comprehensive Sickness Insurance, third party support in spouse applications, marriages in durable partner cases, the opening of the citizenship route for Chagossian descendants and a Solicitor Regulation Authority report on immigration lawyers. They end by discussing a couple of opinion pieces Colin published, on whether the Home Office should be abolished and whether strategic litigation does more harm than good.

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The 50-minute podcast follows the running order below.

The blog posts covered include:

• What are ‘short term holding facilities’ like the Manston refugee camp?
• Briefing: What is Article 1D of the Refugee Convention?
• How does the asylum ‘white list’ work and what does the government plan to change?
• Asylum backlog hits 150,000 and net migration hits 500,000
• Understanding the Home Office’s problem with asylum decisions
• Appendix Settlement Protection: indefinite leave to remain for people granted refugee status or humanitarian protection
• Reducing distress when working with children in the asylum process
• Record high referrals for potential victims of modern slavery
• The refugee reception crisis in the UK mirrors the situation on the continent
• Failed asylum seeker’s false identity conviction quashed
• Home Office breaches the duty of candour in mobile phone seizures case
• Home Office guidance update: the NHS and comprehensive sickness insurance for EEA nationals
• Developments in third party financial support for spouse or partner visa applications
• Post-Brexit marriages in durable partner appeals
• New route to British citizenship for people of Chagossian descent
• Solicitors Regulation Authority publishes new guidance for immigration work: supervision, quality, and complaints
• Should the Home Office be abolished?
• Strategic litigation: more harm than good?