My colleague Adrian Berry has done an excellent write up of one of his cases over on his blog that I can heavily recommend as reading: British Citizenship by Descent:Trial and Error. The case is R (Bondada) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2015] EWHC 2661 (Admin), a...
New guidance on conducting age assessments has been published by the Association of Directors of Children’s Services. The work has been done in co-operation with the Home Office and the new guidelines will be of critical importance in age assessment disputes. Some background from the ADCS website:
...I gave a 25 minute presentation on the Immigration Act 2014 and new Immigration Bill at the JUSTICE annual human rights conference yesterday. As an experiment, I tried recording myself and have combined the audio with the slides. Enjoy. Or not. I have also uploaded the audio track separately as...
The second reading of the Immigration Bill in the House of Commons is today. We have seen how even more appeals will be out of country under its regime, and the greater powers given to immigration officers under Part 3. Part 6 – including Schedules 7 and 8 – offers...
Seasoned public law lawyers have felt for some time that it is far harder to succeed in immigration judicial review applications in the Upper Tribunal than it ever was in the High Court. Cases that would have been very likely to succeed will not only now fail but will be...
President McCloskey has given guidance on the interpretation and effect of the statutory human rights considerations inserted into Part 5A of the 2002 Act by the Immigration Act 2014. The case is Deelah and others (section 117B – ambit) [2015] UKUT 515 (IAC) and Counsel Zane Malik’s four submissions were summarised at...
Yesterday Home Secretary Theresa May gave a speech on immigration and asylum issues at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester. It was a nakedly political speech that was clearly intended to appeal to the right wing of the Conservative Party. Theresa May is positioning herself to make a bid for...
The Guardian is carrying a story that the Home Office has settled an unlawful detention claim by a pregnant asylum seeker detained at Yarl’s Wood and has said it will review its policy. The level of compensation is not disclosed. Detention policy is supposedly that pregnant asylum seekers will not...
Dr Hugo Storey has retired from the Upper Tribunal with effect from 30 September 2015, it has been announced: Dr Storey (70) was appointed a part-time Immigration Adjudicator in 1990 and a Special Immigration Adjudicator and Centre Adjudicator in Manchester in 1995. He was appointed Vice-President of the Immigration Appeal...
In R (on the application of Bah) v Secretary of State for the Home Department IJR [2015] UKUT 518 (IAC) the Upper Tribunal finds that even though the applicant had received a letter stating that the Home Office “aimed” to resolve cases by July 2011, this did not amount to...
Part 3 of the Immigration Bill gives a host of new, wide powers to immigration officers. A person with leave to enter arrives in at the airport. Schedule 19(1) and (2) – the first section of Part 3 – gives immigration officers the power to curtail leave, rather to simply...
Back in the day, One Direction enjoyed considerable success and dominated the reported charts. Without a picture in the attic, though, good fortune and good looks cannot last forever. Decline is inevitable. It can be embraced with dignity but this eludes some performers, who simply go on playing the same...
This week, Lord Justices Elias, Richards and McCombe sat in the Court of Appeal and heard the first test cases against Section 94B of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002. Section 94B, introduced by the Immigration Act 2014 and which came into force on 28th July 2014, provides the...
In the latest instalment of the ongoing online training course delivered by President McCloskey via BAILII on the nature, scope and practice of appeal and judicial review proceedings in the Immigration and Asylum Chamber, ONM (Remittal to FtT with directions) Jamaica [2015] UKUT 517 (IAC), we learn the following: (i)...
In MC (Essa principles recast) Portugal [2015] UKUT 520 (IAC), Dr Storey, with the assistance of new Upper Tribunal Judge Canavan, turns his attention to the pressing issue of reinterpreting the principles in the cases of Essa, of which there are three, as already reinterpreted by the Court of Appeal...
The Upper Tribunal has issued the much awaited case addressing whether human rights grounds can be argued in an EU rights of residence appeal. The determination is Amirteymour and others (EEA appeals; human rights) [2015] UKUT 466 (IAC) and the official headnote reads: Where no notice under section 120 of...
The AIRE Centre has put out a call for evidence on Operation Nexus from lawyers, individuals or organisations working with EEA nationals who have been affected: The AIRE Centre has launched a project which seeks to clarify the lawfulness of Operation Nexus. We are especially interested in how Operation Nexus...
The Immigration Bill 2015 was published on 17 September 2015. For now, this post provides links to further reading and resources on the Bill and also some commentary on the appeals sections, which are of the most direct interest to immigration lawyers like myself. I may update and perhaps republish...
Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules HC 437 has been published. Most of the changes are fairly minor or technical but not all. From the explanatory notes: The purpose of these changes is to: implement section 53(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (“the 2015 Act”) which provides that...
“The fathers who only see their children on a computer screen: It’s a heartbreaking sign of our times…” From the Daily Mail. The article goes on “A landmark legal ruling in 2011 has led to a rapid rise in ‘Skype dads’ … With children living half way around the world...
Last week the Children’s Commissioner for England released a study into the impact of the Coalition Government’s new family immigration rules, introduced in 2012. The report is an emotionally difficult read with some heart breaking quotes but unfortunately I’m not sure that those who should read it will read it;...
The first week of September 2015. On the most northerly coast of Lesvos, one of the most easterly outposts of Greece’s many islands and a far flung outpost of the European Union, nestles the beautiful fishing port of Skala Sykaminias reached by a melting tarmac road at the end of...
Back in 2001 the EU adopted Council Directive 2001/55/EC, usually referred to as the Temporary Protection Directive. Its full title reveals its purpose: on minimum standards for giving temporary protection in the event of a mass influx of displaced persons and on measures promoting a balance of efforts between Member...
UPDATE: Permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal seems to have been granted: Sales LJ grants permission to appeal from UT's recent decision in Bilal Ahmed) (EEA/s 10 appeal rights: effect) IJR: http://t.co/fbQLhZpxZq — Zane Malik QC (@ZaneMalikQC) October 9, 2015 On 24 July 2015 the Upper Tribunal handed...
Interesting legal opinion by my colleague Adrian Berry for the Association of Charitable Foundations on the ‘right to rent’ landlord civil penalties introduced by the Immigration Act 2014. Adrian does some myth busting on the meaning of “no recourse to public funds” and goes on to argue that the landlord...
In HA (Article 24 QD) Palestinian Territories [2015] UKUT 465 (IAC) the President of the Upper Tribunal decides, according to the somewhat cryptic headnote: (i) Article 24 of the Qualification Directive does not confer a substantive right of residence in the Member State concerned. Rather, its function is to determine...
New policy ACRO referrals to criminal casework has been added to the Immigration Directorate Instructions at Chapter 36. This covers cases where a foreign national is arrested in the UK. An overseas criminal records check is to be carried out automatically. If any offences are revealed and any offence is...
In another Hamid judgment the Upper Tribunal has referred for investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority the conduct of another solicitors’ firm, this time Sandbrook Solicitors. The case is Re Sandbrook Solicitors [2015] EWHC 2473 (Admin). Sitting in the Upper Tribunal, Mr Justice Green makes clear that no findings of...
In last weekend’s Sunday Times, Nigel Lawson lashed out at the emotional response of leading politicians and spiritual leaders to the image of “the sight of a drowned toddler”, thereby causing us to believe it was necessary for the UK to accept more Syrian refugees. He thinks we should not...
Very interesting, worrying and yet somehow unsurprising study on inconsistencies in asylum appeal adjudication by Nick Gill, Rebecca Rotter, Andrew Burridge, Melanie Griffiths and Jennifer Allsopp in the September 2015 edition of the Forced Migration Review. For example: Judges are advised to take an ‘enabling’ role with unrepresented appellants but...
Monday: 3:30pm. Like most asylum lawyer geeks — you know who you are — I was hanging on every word of the Prime Minister when he made his announcement on how many Syrian “refugees” would be provided resettlement in the UK. He was at pains to distinguish between refugees and...
In a judgment that may be of interest to legal aid lawyers, the High Court has overturned a rejection by the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) of a legal aid claim by Duncan Lewis solicitors. The Legal Aid Agency should have considered whether the means assessment conducted by Duncan Lewis, which...
Welcome to the July 2015 edition of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. In this episode I start by talk about Sir Nicholas Winton then move on to discuss the huge delays in appeal hearing listings and some other tribunal news, cover some immigration rule issues including a brief overview...
Last month’s report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, Inspection of Border Force Operations at Heathrow Airport, reveals that the Border Force Officers at Heathrow Airport are failing to record justifications for detention and searches of passengers. If they did keep a record, they often failed to...
