Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! A survey of Ukrainians in the UK has indicated that a high proportion had lost either lost out on a new job, their tenancy was not renewed, were unable to sign a new tenancy or had a job contract that was not renewed,...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! On Tuesday last week the Home Affairs Select Committee heard oral evidence for their inquiry into asylum accommodation from witnesses including David Bolt, the interim Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (for a little while longer at least). The written evidence submitted to the inquiry has...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! Committee stage of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill continued last week, and the two amendments that had been put forward to reverse the recent changes to the good character guidance were debated on Thursday. Pete Wishart MP put it well when...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! There were reports of widespread issues with eVisas last week as accounts again seemed to be linked to the wrong identities in yet another data breach. It remains unclear what is causing these issues or when and how it is expected to be resolved. In the meantime, it was...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! Committee stage of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill continues this week. An amendment has been proposed by the SNP’s Pete Wishart (on page 8), which would ensure that illegal entry to the UK is ignored when considering the good character requirement in...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! With no sign of any movement from the government on the ban on citizenship for those who have arrived in the UK without permission, despite further pressure, it looks like it will end up being lawyers who hopefully get this policy overturned. We have also started...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! Second reading of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill took place last Monday and more briefings have been published, including from Refugee Council, ILPA, Work Rights Centre and Amnesty. The call for evidence for the committee stage of the Bill is now open. Committee stage starts on 27 February so best to...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! The 2nd reading of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill will take place later today and it looks like committee stage will finish no later than 20 March 2025. Useful resources I have seen published in the last week include this briefing from Focus on Labour Exploitation and...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! With last week’s first reading of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, the sector has its first Bill under this Labour government. The Safety of Rwanda Act 2024 will be repealed but the situation with the Illegal Migration Act 2023 is less straightforward....

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! The Home Secretary has named her preferred candidate as the next Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration – John Tuckett, who is currently the Immigration Services Commissioner. It’s over to the Home Affairs Select Committee now, who will carry out a pre-appointment hearing before...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! The OISC rebrand to Immigration Advice Authority happened last week. The timing of all this is not amazing given the amount of time that organisations are currently wasting trying to navigate the new online portal process introduced in October. Problems reported by people...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! The Times reported last week that Professor Brian Bell, chair of the Migration Advisory Committee, supports people in the asylum system being allowed to work in any role after waiting six months for their claim to be decided. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise given...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! It may be a brand new year but the same unresolved issues from 2024 continue to roll on. The first is of course eVisas, and we are now past the point where any remaining biometric residence permits have expired. The latest update is...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! Statements by UNHCR and ECRE are both must reads in relation to the pause on Syrian asylum claims. A pause seems sensible to me and could be beneficial to those where proceeding with the claim now may otherwise result in a refusal. Many Syrian asylum claims are...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! On Wednesday the government made a written statement on eVisas that didn’t contain much that was new, apart from the ability of people to use biometric residence permits that expire on 31 December 2024 to travel up until 31 March 2025 (actually announced in the Guardian...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! Okay, it’s a Monday, so let’s do the good news first. Bibby Stockholm is empty. Friday was the deadline for the Lord Chancellor to make an announcement on legal aid fees for immigration and asylum work, following the settlement of Duncan Lewis’ judicial review in September....

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! Manston is back in the news after the Home Secretary withdrew her decision of September 2024 not to hold a statutory inquiry into what happened in 2022 when the Home Office “completely lost grip” on the centre. A judicial review that was due to be heard last...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! The National Audit Office reported last week that the Home Office managed to buy the asbestos contaminated Northeye for a mere £9 million pounds more than it had been sold for the year before. The site was intended to be used as asylum accommodation but...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! As predicted, “small boats week” didn’t exactly dominate news coverage last week, despite reports of further deaths. A couple of articles worth reading are Lizzie Dearden’s one on Home Office officials’ doubts over the government’s small boats plan and Enver Solomon in the Guardian on why “smash the gangs”...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! The bad news is that we apparently have to tolerate yet another media contrived “small boats week”. The good news is that this is the exact opposite of a quiet news week and the US election will presumably drown out most other news, whatever...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! Last week the House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee published a report looking at several regulations including the Immigration and Nationality (Fees) (Amendment) Order 2024, part of which is now in force. It appears that the regulations were laid at least in part because applicants...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! The government continues to reference Migration Advisory Committee advice in response to questions about expanding the right to work for those waiting for an asylum decision. As I have pointed out before, the committee has recommended that the right to work is not limited to roles on...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! The lack of options for people to come to the UK in safety continues to make news. There was the story of the Ukrainian woman whose 11 and 15 year old children were refused permission to join here, with no right of appeal at first. Two...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! I am away this week, so if anything big has happened since Thursday, that’s why it isn’t in here.  The latest tribunal statistics are out and it continues to be bad news for a government which would really like to stop hearing the words “asylum...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! There was big news on Friday as we heard that the Lord Chancellor has conceded the judicial review challenging inaction on legal aid fees for immigration and asylum work. Usefully, we have a fairly clear timetable for when action needs to be taken. The government has...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! Issues around the EU Settlement Scheme continue to make news, with the latest being the story of a Polish man who the Home Office was trying to remove despite his having lived here for 20 years and having applied twice to the EUSS.  We are one year...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! Another eight people died in the Channel over the weekend while trying to come to the UK. The government continues to focus on securitisation alone, as a new Border Security Commander is announced and the prime minister seems to believe that there is something useful to...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! Following last week’s disaster in the Channel in which six children and a pregnant woman were among the dozen who lost their lives, everyone should read this article by a Syrian refugee in the UK highlighting the problems with the government’s approach to...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! David Bolt, the interim Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, recentlly published an update on the team’s work. There are two reports currently with the Home Secretary awaiting publication, those are the Country of Origin information report on Rwanda which was sent to her on 16...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! I noticed what appears to be an interesting change of framing on eVisas last week. A written question for the Home Office on the roll out of the new system was answered in a way that seems to downplay the importance of the...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! Over the weekend, another two people have died trying to cross the Channel from France to the UK. A family whose eldest daughter died in the attempt a couple of weeks ago explain why they will continue to try to make the crossing....

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! It has been a week of terror for many after far-right racists have run riot across across the UK, culminating in the attempt to burn down two hotels where people who had come to the UK and asked us to protect them were living. The thugs are...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! For the third week in a row a person has died trying to cross the Channel to get to the UK. 23 people have lost their lives attempting that journey and there is a lot of this year left. Still nothing from the new government...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! There were two separate incidents last week in which a person lost their life while trying to cross the Channel. On Wednesday one person died and 71 were rescued, and the next day one person died and 85 were rescued. Nothing yet from the new government...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! Friday morning saw yet another avoidable tragedy as four people died while trying to cross the Channel to reach the UK. While the Prime Minister has sensibly declined to commit to “stopping the boats” (they will not stopped but can be reduced), the...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! For those who are interested, here is the list of ministerial appointments from Friday. As expected, the Home Secretary is now Yvette Cooper. Diana Johnson and Angela Eagle have been added as Home Office ministers this morning but I haven’t seen any detail of their...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! We are finally down to the last few days before the election, and Refugee Council has published what looks like a pretty strong list of “day one” recommendations for the new government on asylum. The King’s Speech will take place on 17 July and we wait to...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! It was Refugee Week last week and so we updated and republished some of our explainers, including this one which takes an in depth look at the latest data on the asylum system. The backlog has essentially moved to the extremities of the asylum system,...

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! When I wrote up RAMFEL’s section 3C case last week I ended on the point that the use of digital immigration status is incompatible with the hostile environment. It is difficult to see how the government’s switch to digital status is going to be anything...