The High Court has held that an unlawfully withdrawn asylum claim can amount to exceptional circumstances meaning that an extension of time should be granted
In JR v Advocate General for Scotland [2024] CSOH 64, the Court of Session has encouraged greater use of the powers to transfer a judicial
We previously covered the High Court’s decision that routine redactions of junior civil servants’ names in judicial review disclosure was unlawful, and the Court of
The Home Office has conceded a judicial review and accepted that the ‘Detention Services Order 04/2020: Mental Vulnerability and Immigration Detention‘ was not operating effectively
The impact of age assessment decisions on unaccompanied asylum seeking children coming to the UK is huge. As we explored in this earlier article, an
An exploration of the different entitlements to family reunion for parents and siblings of refugee children and partners and children of adult refugees was recently
In a reasoned determination on costs, the High Court has found that a judicial review brought by seven West Midlands councils over unfair allocation of
This was the unsurprising finding of the Upper Tribunal in R (Ashrafuzzaman) v Entry Clearance Officer (precedent fact; general grounds refusal) [2022] UKUT 133 (IAC).
In R (Shahi) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 1676 the Court of Appeal held that a grant of interim
The Supreme Court has upheld the policy of treating asylum seekers who claim to be children as adults if two Home Office officials think that
The Judicial Review and Courts Bill 2021, published yesterday, will mostly abolish the right of migrants to apply to the High Court to have an
The Upper Tribunal can consider late acknowledgments of service from the Home Office when deciding whether to grant permission for judicial review proceedings, the Court
Procedure-wise, immigration judicial reviews don’t tend to be that speedy. When you get to the end of the road, you may have run out of
As we continue to grapple with the impact of Brexit, my colleagues and I experienced an increase in Dublin III certification and removal cases at
The government has committed to scrapping Cart judicial review and is consulting on other changes to JR as part of its response to the report
Everyone who works with asylum seekers knows that the Home Office system for providing accommodation is not fit for purpose. In R (DMA and Others)
The government wants to make it much harder to appeal from the tribunal system to the Court of Appeal. The Ministry of Justice is consulting
Last year, Nick wrote up the case of MA (Pakistan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWCA Civ 1252, summarising it as follows:
In Odubajo v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] CSIH 57, it was hoped that the Inner House of the Court of Session
On 26 August 2020 at 7:45, a flight chartered by the Home Office took off from Stansted airport, heading for France via Dusseldorf. The passengers
Scottish litigation would not be the same unless we had fancy words for everything. “Judge”? – too plain. We have “Lord Ordinary”. “Appeal”? Pah! We
The Upper Tribunal has found that the Home Office’s policy for waiving the immigration application fee for destitute immigrants — the fees can add up
I have read a lot of pre-action letters in my time. And I have responded to a fair few too. For a couple of years
The Home Office may have to pay compensation in the case of major blunders, the Court of Appeal has said in a significant new ruling,
In Odubajo v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] CSOH 2, the Court of Session has ruled that the three-month time limit for
The Upper Tribunal clearly has a tough time getting into the holiday spirit. Ejiogu (Cart cases) [2019] UKUT 395 (IAC), reported just before Christmas, is the
On a warm summer’s day in late July, five sets of appellant lawyers found themselves in Court 4 of the Upper Tribunal in Field House,
The Home Office acted unlawfully when accommodating a Nigerian asylum seeker and her young children in a studio flat for about 14 months, the High
A student who ran away to join ISIS in Syria has lost a legal challenge to the UK government’s decision to take away his British
In immigration law, deadlines are important. They also frequently cause confusion. Sound familiar? That may be because this is how I began a post last
The Upper Tribunal has referred an immigration adviser to the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC), accusing him of running judicial review cases without
Hard on the heels of one legal aid climb-down by the Lord Chancellor comes another. The government has conceded that legal aid lawyers can be
With so much focus on whether an asylum seeker has established a well founded fear of persecution in their country of origin, the question of
The Secretary of State has confirmed that he intends to introduce appeal rights for extended family members of EEA nationals who have been refused a
Reading the case of R (Prathipati) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (discretion – exceptional circumstances) [2018] UKUT 427 (IAC), it is impossible
Many of us have been in the situation where, having challenged the opening of a removal window without a decision having made on an outstanding
Thakrar (Cart JR; Art 8: value to community) [2018] UKUT 336 (IAC) is a rare example of a case where permission to appeal to the Upper
The removal of full rights of appeal for family visit visas in 2013 has led to a legal dilemma for those considering a challenge to
It is said to be a wise child who knows his own father. It might be thought, having read the facts of this case, that
Those who were present at the recent Administrative Law Bar Association breakfast meeting on costs in judicial review will recall Alison Pickup, Legal Director of
The High Court has held that an unlawfully withdrawn asylum claim can amount to exceptional circumstances meaning that an extension of time should be granted for a reconsideration request of a trafficking decision. The case is R (KM) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 2870 (Admin)....
In JR v Advocate General for Scotland [2024] CSOH 64, the Court of Session has encouraged greater use of the powers to transfer a judicial review to the Upper Tribunal and laid out what factors might be relevant in making that decision. In Scotland, all applications for judicial review are...
We previously covered the High Court’s decision that routine redactions of junior civil servants’ names in judicial review disclosure was unlawful, and the Court of Appeal has now agreed with that in R (IAB and others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department and Secretary of State for Levelling...
The Home Office has conceded a judicial review and accepted that the ‘Detention Services Order 04/2020: Mental Vulnerability and Immigration Detention‘ was not operating effectively or as intended in ‘certain cases’, particularly in cases where there are concerns about a detained individual’s ability to make immigration related decisions. The concession...
The impact of age assessment decisions on unaccompanied asylum seeking children coming to the UK is huge. As we explored in this earlier article, an age assessment decision will affect a young person’s entitlement to social work support and care. It will also have implications on how their asylum claim...
An exploration of the different entitlements to family reunion for parents and siblings of refugee children and partners and children of adult refugees was recently heard in a judicial review that highlights the barriers to family reunions in the immigration rules and the importance of safeguarding refugee children as increasing...
In a reasoned determination on costs, the High Court has found that a judicial review brought by seven West Midlands councils over unfair allocation of responsibilities for housing asylum seekers did not have a causal link to the eventual change in Home Office policy in this area. The case is...
This was the unsurprising finding of the Upper Tribunal in R (Ashrafuzzaman) v Entry Clearance Officer (precedent fact; general grounds refusal) [2022] UKUT 133 (IAC). The exception is where human rights are involved (more on that later). Although the case concerned a refusal under the old paragraph 320(7A), the findings...
In R (Shahi) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 1676 the Court of Appeal held that a grant of interim relief did not entitle a claimant to his costs, where there was no settlement or court determination of the underlying legal issue. Interim relief followed...
The Supreme Court has upheld the policy of treating asylum seekers who claim to be children as adults if two Home Office officials think that the person looks significantly over 18. The case is R (BF (Eritrea)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] UKSC 38. It should...
The Judicial Review and Courts Bill 2021, published yesterday, will mostly abolish the right of migrants to apply to the High Court to have an appeal reopened if rejected by both chambers of the immigration tribunal. This is the process known to lawyers as a Cart or Eba judicial review....
The Upper Tribunal can consider late acknowledgments of service from the Home Office when deciding whether to grant permission for judicial review proceedings, the Court of Appeal has ruled in R (KA) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 1040. Issues in the case The first...
Procedure-wise, immigration judicial reviews don’t tend to be that speedy. When you get to the end of the road, you may have run out of steam when it comes to settling the issue of costs. But if applicant / appellant representatives are to make it work in a world where...
As we continue to grapple with the impact of Brexit, my colleagues and I experienced an increase in Dublin III certification and removal cases at the tail end of last year. In many of those cases, removal directions were deferred and certification decisions were eventually withdrawn. Despite this signalling a...
The government has committed to scrapping Cart judicial review and is consulting on other changes to JR as part of its response to the report of the Independent Review of Administrative Law, both of which were published today. The abolition of the Cart procedure, which effectively gives people a second...
Everyone who works with asylum seekers knows that the Home Office system for providing accommodation is not fit for purpose. In R (DMA and Others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWHC 3416 (Admin) the High Court has finally and emphatically recognised this. The judgment will surely...
The government wants to make it much harder to appeal from the tribunal system to the Court of Appeal. The Ministry of Justice is consulting on changes — sorry, “reforms” — where appeals that have already been heard in both the First-tier and Upper Tribunals in England and Wales would...
Last year, Nick wrote up the case of MA (Pakistan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWCA Civ 1252, summarising it as follows: If a foreign criminal wins their deportation appeal, can the Home Office try and deport them again, even where there has been no further...
In Odubajo v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] CSIH 57, it was hoped that the Inner House of the Court of Session would provide some much-needed guidance on the vexed issue of when the three-month clock starts ticking to lodge applications for judicial review. Instead, it ruled...
On 26 August 2020 at 7:45, a flight chartered by the Home Office took off from Stansted airport, heading for France via Dusseldorf. The passengers were asylum seekers from countries such as Iran, Sudan and Yemen. A similar flight took off two weeks before; another is reportedly scheduled for 3...
Scottish litigation would not be the same unless we had fancy words for everything. “Judge”? – too plain. We have “Lord Ordinary”. “Appeal”? Pah! We have the “reclaiming motion”. “Court of Appeal”? Too simple. We have the “Inner House”. This brief lesson on Scots litigation terminology is by way of...
The Upper Tribunal has found that the Home Office’s policy for waiving the immigration application fee for destitute immigrants — the fees can add up to thousands of pounds for a family — is unlawful and needs to be widened. The judgment is R (Dzineku-Liggison & Ors) v Secretary of...
The Home Office may have to pay compensation in the case of major blunders, the Court of Appeal has said in a significant new ruling, Husson v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWCA Civ 329. Challenging an impressive new low by the Home Office, Mr Husson sought...
In Odubajo v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] CSOH 2, the Court of Session has ruled that the three-month time limit for raising judicial review proceedings starts on the date of the decision, even though the person affected may not have been notified of that decision. This...
The Upper Tribunal clearly has a tough time getting into the holiday spirit. Ejiogu (Cart cases) [2019] UKUT 395 (IAC), reported just before Christmas, is the equivalent of a judicial smack on the hand. It is another reminder of the importance of what the tribunal describes as the “duty of...
On a warm summer’s day in late July, five sets of appellant lawyers found themselves in Court 4 of the Upper Tribunal in Field House, huddled together on what could only be characterised as “the naughty step”. Unaware at the start of the day the rationale for the hearings before...
The Home Office acted unlawfully when accommodating a Nigerian asylum seeker and her young children in a studio flat for about 14 months, the High Court has found. The judgment in R (O) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWHC 2734 (Admin) found that the department failed...
In immigration law, deadlines are important. They also frequently cause confusion. Sound familiar? That may be because this is how I began a post last month following the Upper Tribunal case of Bhavsar. The Upper Tribunal has now published another case demonstrating the importance of, and confusion caused by, deadlines...
The Upper Tribunal has referred an immigration adviser to the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC), accusing him of running judicial review cases without a licence and failing to properly check expert reports. The case is R (Hoxha & Ors) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (representatives:...
Hard on the heels of one legal aid climb-down by the Lord Chancellor comes another. The government has conceded that legal aid lawyers can be paid for their work on a judicial review case where the decision being challenged is withdrawn while an oral permission hearing is pending. Legal aid...
With so much focus on whether an asylum seeker has established a well founded fear of persecution in their country of origin, the question of whether their appeal falls to be allowed under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights is often given only cursory attention. However, it...
The Secretary of State has confirmed that he intends to introduce appeal rights for extended family members of EEA nationals who have been refused a residence card. The government will lay legislation amending the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016 “as soon as reasonably practicable”. This important statement arises out...
Reading the case of R (Prathipati) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (discretion – exceptional circumstances) [2018] UKUT 427 (IAC), it is impossible not to feel deep admiration for Ms Prathipati. The 28-year-old Indian citizen appeared without a lawyer before Mr Justice Kerr in her application for judicial...
Many of us have been in the situation where, having challenged the opening of a removal window without a decision having made on an outstanding human rights claim, an 11th hour decision comes from the Secretary of State, along with submissions that our claim is now academic. Where the decision...
The removal of full rights of appeal for family visit visas in 2013 has led to a legal dilemma for those considering a challenge to a refusal: should they give up, re-apply, attempt a human rights appeal or launch an application for judicial review? The problem seems all the more...
Those who were present at the recent Administrative Law Bar Association breakfast meeting on costs in judicial review will recall Alison Pickup, Legal Director of the Public Law Project, reminding us that Judicial Review in the Upper Tribunal is not technically judicial review, and of the quotation marks around that...
