There has been a spate of big cases in the last few days. I’ll deal first with what is probably the most legally significant, ZH (Afghanistan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2009] EWCA Civ 1060. In ZH the Court of Appeal have confirmed for anyone that did...
Since 2005, refugees have been granted five years of limited leave, at the end of which they are eligible to apply for settlement, or ILR. Before 2005, they were granted settlement straight away, on the grounds that this policy promoted integration. One of the consequences of this change is that...
An interesting judgment has been handed down today: NR (Jamaica) v SSHD [2009] EWCA Civ 856. It touches on a thorny issue on which I have to say some immigration judges have not exactly covered themselves with glory. Sadly, the Court of Appeal fails to name the responsible senior immigration...
Just a quick post on this to highlight an extremely useful case that’s been handed down today. I’ve been horribly busy so the blog has been suffering a bit, I’m afraid. The case is ZB (Pakistan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2009] EWCA Civ 834. It provides...
There have been several important judgments from the Court of Appeal in the last few weeks. I’ve been very busy and having difficulty keeping up. However, I seem to have been struck down by piggy flu and find myself with time at home on my hands. So, expect a series...
There are two recent important developments on this front. The first is that the Home Office is appealing the ZO Somalia case on right to work for those who have made fresh asylum claims and have not received a decision within one year of their application. This may well be...
There has been a rush of cases in recent weeks on the subject of the Refugee Convention exclusion clauses. The exclusion clauses basically exclude some people from refugee status. In reality, human rights law has evolved to prevent removal if there is a well founded fear in such cases, but...
In an unusual example of the Court of Appeal being less liberal than the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, the AIT’s rather good decision in YS and YY (Paragraph 352D – British national sponsor former refugee) Ethiopia [2008] UKAIT 00093 was overturned by the Court of Appeal in DL (DRC) v ECO,...
There have been a number of recent determinations and judgments, not all of which quite justify a post all of their own, so I thought I would do a round-up. The case that prompted the round-up is GS [2009] UKAIT 00010. It is actually just a direction in a case,...
I posted on this relatively recently but another important judgment has just come out: ZH (Bangladesh) v SSHD [2009] EWCA Civ 8. The case is yet another good one from Lord Justice Sedley. The Court of Appeal find that the whole purpose of the 14 year rule (by which illegal immigrants...
It was already clear but now it could not be clearer: you do not have to show that there are ‘insurmountable obstacles’ to your family joining you abroad in order to succeed in an Article 8 family life case. The new judgment in VW (Uganda) is crystal clear and very...
In the case of EM (Lebanon) v SSHD [2008] UKHL 64 the House of Lords looked at Article 8 again (having done so earlier this year as well) and delivered another landmark judgment. It is believed to be the first time in European legal history that a higher court has found...
[UPDATE: case overturned by Supreme Court] In a case called AM (Ethiopia) & Ors v Entry Clearance Officer [2008] EWCA Civ 1082 the Court of Appeal has just upheld the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal’s approach to the question of what lawyers call ‘third party support’. Third party support is financial support offered...
I’ve just come across another good case from the Court of Appeal that came out over the summer while I was away: the fantastically named GOO and Others [2008] EWCA Civ 747. It is yet another example of a long and tarnished line of tribunal case law being overturned. I’ve decided to...
It should not be a shock that the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal have in a case called HB (Algeria) just accepted the European Court of Justice decision in Metock. UK courts and tribunals are required to accept the ECJ’s judgments on the interpretation and meaning of European Community law, after all....
The House of Lords have just issued four judgments today, three of which are good news for immigrants. The first is Beoku-Betts. In a surprisingly short judgment the Lords tell the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal to stop messing around and get on with assessing the rights of all family members...
It was with considerable pleasure that I read in the paper this morning that the HSMP Forum has won its challenge to the Home Office’s heavy-handed and inconsiderate change to the HSMP rules. I could use stronger language, but I’ll leave it to Mr Justice Bean, who decided the case: an...
The Court of Appeal has given the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal another good ticking off. The case is AG (Eritrea) v SSHD and, frankly, is probably of no interest whatsoever to anyone except geeky immigration lawyers such as myself. However, it’s another piece of objective proof that the current AIT...
The Court of Appeal has yet again overturned the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal’s attempt definitively to establish whether a failed asylum seeker is at risk of ill-treatment by the Zimbabwe secret service at Harare airport following a forced removal there. That’s a sentence and a half. But it’s a case and...
