An Albanian national was mistakenly allowed to enter the UK by an immigration officer who used a stamp described by the Home Office Presenting Officer as “a stamp which is regularly encountered, but the use of which is shrouded in mystery” ...

In this live webinar, Grace Capel and Jasmine Quiller-Doust discuss the special status of Palestinian refugees and Article 1D of the Refugee Convention. Understanding Article 1D is essential if you find yourself representing Palestinian refugees as th ...

The Court of Appeal has emphasised that consideration of whether there are very significant obstacles to a person’s reintegration is a practical test which must take into account objective evidence. The case is NC v Secretary of State for the Ho ...

The Court of Appeal has dismissed a claim for damages against the Home Secretary for a five month delay in granting refugee status, following a successful appeal, to a person with severe mental health issues. The case is FXJ v Secretary of State for t ...

The Home Office must reconsider an application in the now closed Turkish business person route after an poor initial decision to refuse was then compounded by flawed decision making on administrative review and in the subsequent judicial review. The c ...

This post reflects on Wednesday’s momentous Supreme Court decision in the Rwanda litigation. You can read Colin’s initial take on the judgment here. The Supreme Court’s decision To recap, the Supreme Court decided that there are substantial grou ...

The Supreme Court has today held that Rwanda is not a safe country and that it would be unlawful for refugees to be removed there. The government’s appeal against the Court of Appeal’s judgment has been dismissed. Lord Reed, giving the co ...

An Iranian refugee who, according to MI5, holds an Islamist extremist mindset and is supportive of ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), has won his appeal against revocation of his refugee status. If the Home Office decides to revoke a person� ...

The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) has concluded that the guidance given by the Supreme Court in Begum v Special Immigration Appeals Commission & Anor [2021] UKSC 7 on how deprivation decisions should be made is not limited to cases ...

The High Court has issued a damning judgment lamenting the Home Secretary’s attempt to defend a decision to place a highly vulnerable person seeking asylum in accommodation in Swindon, where he could not access his support network in London. The cas ...

Diego Garcia did not have any sort of asylum system in place when it received its first asylum seekers in 2021. Following litigation, the British Indian Ocean Territory has for the first time put in place processes for protection claims to be lodged a ...

It appears that we may start seeing changes in overseas visa processing centres soon, after TLScontact was unsuccessful in an attempt to stop the Home Office from entering into a new contract with VFS Global. The case is Teleperformance Contact Ltd v ...

The Home Office has conceded the latest in an increasingly long line of cases challenging the operation of the no recourse to public funds policy. This challenge was to the refusal to lift the no recourse condition from a person with section 3C leave ...

In BSG v R [2023] EWCA Crim 1041, the Court of Appeal quashed the convictions of a young Somali citizen, who suffered ‘a clear injustice’ after being ‘groomed, exploited and threatened’ [para 57] by a human trafficking gang in the UK. Backgrou ...

In AB and NB v Secretary of State for the Home Department (PA/07865/20119), the First-tier Tribunal found that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was unable to provide “protection and assistance” to a severely disabled Palestinian ...

The government was granted permission to appeal in the Rwanda litigation in July. This post provides an update on the current state of play ahead of the Supreme Court hearing. You can read Free Movement’s coverage of the Court of Appeal’s judgment ...

A claimant wrongly given a deportation order couldn’t benefit from the Windrush Compensation Scheme because his indefinite leave to remain had already lapsed, the High Court has held in R (on the application of Thompson) v Secretary of State for the ...

The Home Secretary’s systematic and routine accommodation of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in hotels is unlawful, the High Court has held. The case, R (on the application of ECPAT UK) v Kent County Council and another [2023] EWHC 1953 (Admin ...

If you married an EU national in the UK after 31 December 2020, you can’t get leave to remain under the EU Settlement Scheme unless you previously had or applied for an EEA residence card or family permit as their durable partner. That remains the c ...

In the recent judgment R (HA and Ors) v SSHD [2023] EWHC 1876 (Admin) the High Court (Swift J) found that the Home Secretary failed to meet even her minimalist legal obligations to provide support to destitute asylum seekers. The details of the case m ...

In WAS (Pakistan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWCA Civ 894, the Court of Appeal has given guidance on the lower standard of proof in asylum appeals. WAS claimed to be at risk because of his involvement with MQM-London, a UK-bas ...

A student whose leave was cancelled on arrival was wrongly denied the opportunity to comment on an allegation of falsified English language qualifications. So held the High Court in R (on the application of Tazeem) v Secretary of State for the Home De ...

In a highly technical decision, Osunneye (Zambrano, transitional appeal rights) Nigeria [2023] UKUT 162 (IAC), the Upper Tribunal has concluded that Zambrano appeals may proceed notwithstanding the various Brexit regulations. The official headnote: A ...

The Upper Tribunal has provided further guidance on the meaning of historical injustice in the case of Ahmed v SSHD [2023] UKUT 00165 (IAC). “Historical injustice” is the term used to describe the circumstances where an individual has suffered as ...

Two new Upper Tribunal cases emphasise the importance of the parties to an immigration appeal identifying and addressing all the issues in dispute. Both the cases were decided by a panel that included Mr Justice Dove, the President of the Upper Tribun ...

An asylum-seeking mother and her four children were placed in inadequate hotel accommodation for over a year, the High Court has found. The case is R (on the application of SA) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWHC 1787 (Admin). It ...

The Home Office has, following a judicial review challenge for two claimants of Duncan Lewis, published new modern slavery statutory guidance which no longer requires a potential victim of trafficking and modern slavery to produce ‘objective’ evid ...

Can a judge ignore part of a Home Office decision if their representative doesn’t mention it in court? No, said the Court of Appeal in Shyti v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWCA Civ 770. The case The appellant, Mr Shyti, was chal ...

The child of an EU national is only entitled to stay in the UK after Brexit if they are under 21 or dependent on their parent, the High Court has held. In reaching this conclusion, the court in R (on the application of Ali) v Secretary of State for th ...

The Home Secretary was entitled to refuse entry clearance to an Afghan interpreter accused of releasing sensitive information and threatening to kill coalition forces. That was the conclusion of the High Court in FMA and others v Secretary of State fo ...

The British Nationality (Regularisation of Past Practice) Act 2023 came into force on 29 June 2023. It inserts a new section 50B into the British Nationality Act 1981. Section 50B definitively and retrospectively confirms the British nationality statu ...

This post reflects on last week’s extraordinary Court of Appeal judgment on the Rwanda policy. You can read our initial take on this here. Appeal to the Supreme Court The government has already announced its intention to seek leave to appeal to the ...

The Supreme Court has held that there was no legal obligation to consider the equality impact of excluding Palestinians from the UK’s resettlement scheme for refugees from Syria. The design of the scheme was therefore lawful. The case is R (on the a ...

The Court of Appeal has found, by a majority, that the Rwanda plan is unlawful as Rwanda is not a sufficiently safe country. In short, the Rwandan authorities are not yet reliably able to sort genuine from non-genuine refugees, and therefore there is ...

Potential victims of trafficking awaiting asylum support decisions during the first lockdown were wrongly denied the full payments to which they were entitled. So held the High Court in R (on the application of PM) v Secretary of State for the Home De ...

A Scottish Fatal Accident Inquiry has held that a number of defects in the system of working in Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre led to the death of a 54-year old Chinese man which could have reasonably been avoided. A Fatal Accident Inquiry, simil ...

The High Court has decided it should not invoke its wardship jurisdiction in relation to missing and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. In Article 39 v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWHC 1398 (Fam), Article 39, a charity promot ...