The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights has intervened in a Strasbourg case on Greek refugee protection – or rather lack of it: The Commissioner concluded that current asylum law and practice in Greece are not in compliance with international and European human rights standards, expressing at the same time...
Judgment is out in JS (Sri Lanka), an appeal to the Supreme Court from KJ (Sri Lanka) in the Court of Appeal. Judgment here, summary here. The Secretary of State’s appeal was dismissed and the Court of Appeal judgment largely upheld, other than in respect of too tightly defining liability...
Further to my alerter post on this last month, the judgment is now available in the damning Third Country removals case on children. It is called R (on the application of T) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2010] EWHC 435 (Admin). As expected, the judgment is scathing. It...
In the case of MD (Jamaica) & Anor v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2010] EWCA Civ 213 the Court of Appeal has dismissed two appeals against refusals under the long residence immigration rules. In both cases the immigrants had short gaps in their lawful residence and had...
The Court of Appeal has re-visited the proper approach to deciding whether fresh asylum claims meet the rule 353 test. The case is R (on the application of YH) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2010] EWCA Civ 116 and it effectively supersedes WM (DRC) and interprets the...
Mr Justice Collins has given a scathing judgment in a grant of permission to a judicial review challenge to the practice of the Home Office’s Third Country Unit (TCU) in detaining and removing children to supposedly safe third countries such as Greece and Italy. The case was heard yesterday and...
I’ve just come across an interesting little judgment on mandatory refusal cases. It is only a permission decision so it has limited precedent value, but it is worth highlighting. The case is SA (Pakistan) v SSHD [2009] EWCA Civ 1510 and concerns the mandatory refusal grounds set out at Immigration...
The appeal to the Supreme Court against the Court of Appeal judgment in DL (DRC) and ZN (Afghanistan) [2008] EWCA Civ 1420 succeeded yesterday, on the day it was heard. Judgment is to follow. The case turns on the question of whether a recognised refugee who has now been granted British...
There were developments last week in the world of third country removal cases, and now seems like a good moment to review the current position. The Dublin II Regulation (not its official title) enables EU states to return an asylum seeker to the country through which the asylum seeker first...
The first case I’ve seen dealing with the notorious Immigration Rule 320 no-return provisions came out shortly before Christmas, although judgment was actually handed down ages ago, in April 2009. The case is MA (Nigeria) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2009] EWCA Civ 1229. Lord Justice Ward...
This is another from last week’s luggage carousel – I’m still catching up, I’m afraid. In the case of JA (Ivory Coast) & Anor v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2009] EWCA Civ 1353 the Court of Appeal has allowed the appeal of a woman with HIV/AIDS (albeit only...
UKBA have changed their removals policy, and not in a nice way. The announcement letter to stakeholders is available here and does not really tell half the story. In essence, the 72 hour notice period for removals is to be waived in a wide range of cases and no-notice removals will...
The case of TK (Tamils, LP updated) Sri Lanka CG [2009] UKAIT 00049 is next on the carousel. As can be seen from the title, it deals with the current situation on the ground in Sri Lanka since the military defeat of the LTTE in May 2009. The country guidance can...
The luggage carousel of the UK courts has deposited a collection of interesting new cases. I’ll take them one at a time. Probably the most important of these is KH (Afghanistan) v SSHD [2009] EWCA Civ 1354, a long-awaited decision from the Court of Appeal on medical treatment, Article 3...
Many thanks to the encyclopedic John O of NCADC for this information. The Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal against the reasoning of the tribunal in AP and FP (Citizens Directive Article 3(2); discretion; dependence) India [2007] UKAIT 00048 and has found that in European Community free movement law, dependency...
The JCWI challenge to the increase to the spouse and partner visa age from 18 to 21 has been dismissed: Quila v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2009] EWHC 3189 (Admin) (07 December 2009). For previous coverage of this issue on Free Movement, click here. There will certainly be...
Permission has been granted in the case of R (on the app of Darboe) v SSHD [2009] EWHC 3100 (Admin) to challenge the inclusion of men in Gambia on the s.94 ‘White List’ of countries for which it is presumed any asylum claims are clearly unfounded and therefore only attract an...
The Supreme Court has ruled in favour of claimants in two immigration cases today. In R (on the application of A) v London Borough of Croydon their Lordships have ruled that it is for the courts to decide age assessment issues. The courts should not simply defer to local authorities,...
I’ve just seen that judgment is now available on BAILII* in a recent successful challenge to UKBA’s refusal to grant permission to work to those who are entitled to it following the Court of Appeal judgment in ZO (Somalia). More about the issue in previous posts starting here. It is...
[UPDATE: see later post for judgment] My bad, as I believe some young people today sometimes say. Many thanks to the excellent Philip Nathan of 36 Bedford Row, one of the juniors in the case, for a more authoritative explanation of the 3rd party Supreme Court case, which I reproduce from...
[UPDATE: see later post] News just in, more to follow tomorrow, if there’s anything to say. AM (Somalia) was heard and allowed today. I’m currently at the Hammersmith and Fulham Community Law Centre AGM so not much chance to deal with this properly right now. Word is that the Supreme...
Do not be fooled by the first judgment in AS (Afghanistan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2009] EWCA Civ 1076 by Lady Justice Arden. She holds that the appeal should be dismissed, but is out-voted by the rest of the bench, Lord Justice Moore-Bick and Lord Justice...
In the recent case of MS and others (family reunion: “in order to seek asylum”) Somalia [2009] UKAIT 00041 the tribunal looked at the refugee family reunion rules and came to the slightly surprising conclusion that not all refugees have the same rights. A recognised refugee who arrived in the...
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...
In an unusually dramatic move, the Presenting Officer in the recent case of KB (para: 320(7A): “false representations”) Albania [2009] UKAIT 00043 served a section 40 notice on a witness in the case, thereby depriving him of his British citizenship. There is a right of appeal to the tribunal against...
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...
In the recent case of AK (Iran) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2008] EWCA Civ 941 the Court of Appeal held that an immigration judge had committed an error of law in failing to adjourn a hearing when the appellant had been ditched by his legal representative...
Permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal has been granted in at least three cases to look at the question of in what circumstances a person with HIV/AIDS might succeed in establishing a right to remain in the UK on the basis that their removal to another country would...
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...
No time for a proper post on this new case from the tribunal, NA & Others (Tier 1 Post-Study Work-funds) [2009] UKAIT 00025, so I’ll just paste in the headnote, which speaks for itself: i. The new-style Immigration Rules governing Tier 1 (Post Study Work) contain a Maintenance (Funds) requirement...
This is becoming something of a hot topic, no doubt because of the number of Sri Lankan and Zimbabwean fresh claims that have been made recently because of changed circumstances in those two countries. The Court of Appeal has just issued a judgment on the interpretation of paragraph 353 of...
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...
I recently wrote a post on fresh claims for asylum explaining what they are and summarising the criteria. New on this subject this week is ZO (Somalia) v SSHD [2009] EWCA Civ 442, in which the Court of Appeal holds that the same law on permission to work that applies...
Odelola v SSHD has been dismissed in the House of Lords. The immigration rules that apply to a decision are those at the date of decision, not the date of the application. There is no presumption against retrospectivity. The Law Lords do not repeat Buxton LJ’s analysis of the nature...
