Prior to the Nationality and Borders Act, it was generally unlawful for an asylum seeker to be removed from the United Kingdom while an asylum claim or asylum appeal was being pursued. This safeguard is removed by section 29 combined with Schedule 4 of the Act, which enable removal of...
The power to take someone’s citizenship away has been in place for many years. The Home Secretary can exercise it when it would be “conducive to the public good”, even (in some cases) where it would make the person stateless. The circumstances in which she has done so have largely...
As background, British Overseas Territories Citizenship is one of the different forms of contemporary British nationality. It was one of the three main forms of status created by the British Nationality Act 1981 to replace Citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies. It was originally called British Dependent Territories Citizenship but...
In R (EOG & KTT) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWCA Civ 307, the Court of Appeal has confirmed that challenges arguing that Home Office policies breach the European Convention Against Trafficking (ECAT) are justiciable insofar as the policy purports to comply with ECAT. It went...
In this month’s update we’ve got a load of different topics to cover – from fees, investor visas and CSI to asylum, age assessments and appeals. The downloadable 30-minute podcast follows the running order below. Timestamps indicate when a particular section begins. Fees Supreme Court upholds government’s right to set...
Eligibility for NHS treatment does count as Comprehensive Sickness Insurance, the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled. The case is C‑247/20 VI v Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. Page contentsBackground: non-working EU citizens needed health insuranceWhy did it take so long to decide that the NHS counts...
Welcome to episode 98 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we’ve got a load of different topics to cover, from fees, investor visas and CSI to asylum, age assessments and appeals. If you would like to claim CPD points for reading the material and listening to this...
A mother of three British children has lost her appeal against the decision of Amber Rudd to take away her British citizenship in 2017. The judgment of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) makes for very grim reading. The woman, anonymised as “U3”, was born in the UK with British...
The government has very, very belatedly published the Disruptive Powers Transparency Report for 2020, which includes at page 27 the figures for the number of British citizens stripped of their status on the basis that to do so was ‘conducive to the public good’. There were 27 in 2019 and...
The Ministry of Defence and Home Office have jointly announced that the government will be waiving settlement fees for foreign citizens who have served in the UK armed forces for at least six years or been discharged due to an illness or injury attributable to their service. The change will...
Article 32 Article 32 requires states not to expel a refugee lawfully in their territory save on grounds of national security or public order: Expulsion The Contracting States shall not expel a refugee lawfully in their territory save on grounds of national security or public order. The expulsion of such...
The Refugee Convention includes two key exclusion clauses which allow for a person to be returned (“refouled”) to their country of origin, notwithstanding the dangers they may face there. Here, the Convention differs markedly from the protection regime developed under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Article...
Protection from persecution is the core purpose of the Refugee Convention, which as a legal instrument has saved more lives than any other in history. That said, “persecution” has no formal definition in the Convention. Famously, it has been said that the flexibility of the concept of “being persecuted” is...
Relevance of past experiences to future risk Past experiences can be relevant to the assessment of future risk under the Convention, and the Immigration Rules embed this principle – see rule 339K: The fact that a person has already been subject to persecution or serious harm, or to direct threats...
The Refugee Convention is international in scope and must be understood and interpreted in many countries. Any differences in how it is understood or interpreted would lead to different approaches to protection in different countries. The Convention has existed for 70 years so it will be no surprise that during...
Few people I know have ever had to face a contempt of court allegation. This is perhaps surprising given the range of activities potentially covered by the law of contempt, highlighted by the very recent decision of the Court of Appeal in R (Counsel General for Wales) v Secretary of...
Immigration appeals decided without a hearing under the Upper Tribunal’s notorious COVID-19 guidance don’t automatically fall to be set aside, the Court of Appeal has held in Hussain and another v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWCA Civ 145. In so finding, the court confirmed the reasoning...
In R (SV) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] UKUT 239 (IAC), the Upper Tribunal has held that the European Convention Against Trafficking (ECAT) not being a part of UK domestic law is no reason to refuse to examine the lawfulness of a policy which purports to...
On 7 February 2022 the Home Office updated Detention Services Order 02/2019 on Care and management of Post Detention Age claims. This policy sets out the approach to age dispute cases in immigration detention and applies to Home Office staff and its contractors. The last version of the policy (dated...
The Supreme Court has dismissed a challenge to the level at which the government has set the fees for children to register as British citizens. The court held that the government has been authorised by Parliament to set the level of the fees as it chooses. Currently, the fee is...
The UK government’s attempt to strip a British-Pakistani woman of her citizenship without telling her was unlawful, a split Court of Appeal has confirmed. Lord Justice Baker and Lady Justice Whipple held that the regulation allowing notice of citizenship deprivation to be placed “on file” is ultra vires the British...
The Upper Tribunal has affirmed the continuing obligation to disclose material facts in applications for naturalisation as a British citizen, including facts which arise after submitting the application. The case is Walile (deprivation: self-incrimination: anonymity) [2022] UKUT 17 (IAC). Offence committed while citizenship application pending The facts in this case...
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This month we’re covering December 2021 and we’ll go over some EU rights issues, a bit on deportation, a bit on asylum, touch on human rights and address some fascinating procedural issues of law. The downloadable 36-minute podcast follows the running order below. Timestamps indicate when a particular section begins....
In R (SGW) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Biometrics , family reunion policy) [2022] UKUT 15 (IAC), the Upper Tribunal decided that Home Office guidance on refugee family reunion applications is unlawful because it fails to accurately describe the legal discretion in relation to providing biometric information....
Welcome to episode 96 of the Free Movement immigration update podcast. This month we’re covering December 2021 and we’ll go over some EU rights issues, a bit on deportation, a bit on asylum, touch on human rights and address some fascinating procedural issues of law. If you would like to...
The regulations on student finance in England list different categories of people who are eligible for student loans. One category is people who are “settled” in the UK on the first day of the first academic year of their course. To be settled in immigration terms, you generally need to...
Masquerading as a somewhat niche decision about non-payment of the Immigration Health Surcharge, R (Afzal) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 1909 is a beast of a case that: Extends the Mirza exception to retrospective invalidity beyond biometrics Confirms that in most cases, invalidity (and...
The Supreme Court has circulated a list of cases that it has agreed to hear on appeal in the coming months. The list includes two liberalising deportation rulings from the Court of Appeal, HA (Iraq) and AA (Nigeria) which we hoped had finally put this vexed area of law to...
In Kaitey v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 1875 the Court of Appeal has upheld the High Court’s decision that the power to set immigration bail exists even when a person cannot be lawfully detained. As Alex commented at the time of the High Court...
A visit visa can be cancelled for a variety of reasons. One such reason is that the person’s exclusion from the UK is “conducive to the public good” due to their conduct, character and associations. The Court of Appeal considered this provision in Hussain & Anor v Secretary of State...
In MI (Pakistan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 1711, the Court of Appeal continues to unpick pre-HA (Iraq) deportation jurisprudence, here reversing the Upper Tribunal decision of Imran (Section 117C(5); children, unduly harsh : Pakistan) [2020] UKUT 83 (IAC). Our unimpressed write-up of the...
The Supreme Court has overturned last year’s ruling that EU citizens with pre-settled status should be able to claim Universal Credit without having to jump through hoops. The case is Fratila and another v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2021] UKSC 53. Pre-settled status allows EU citizens living...
Secretary of State for the Home Department v P3 [2021] EWCA Civ 1642 is about how much SIAC should defer to the Home Secretary’s view about national security concerns. The answer is quite a lot, but not too much. The background to this case is the Supreme Court decision in...
It’s hard to imagine a time when immigration lawyers will stop banging the fairness drum. Far from being responsible for an appeals “merry-go-round”, we find ourselves day in and day out trying to resolve unfair issues and cases in a highly politicised area of law. Unfairness takes many forms. It...
In SM (Zimbabwe) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 1566, the Court of Appeal has reiterated the correct approach to deportation appeals involving the potential separation of children from their parents. This unusual appeal involved a 52-year-old man, SM, who had been convicted of child...
The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) is to inspect the relationship between the immigration system and the higher education sector. The call for evidence, which is open until 15 November 2021, confirms that the ICIBI will adopt a “broad perspective”, assessing the extent to which the Home...
The next round of Shamima Begum’s appeal against losing her British citizenship will take place in November 2022. Then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid made an order depriving Ms Begum of her British citizenship in February 2019. An appeal arguing that this left her stateless failed, with the courts finding that she...
