Fun video from Legal Aid Team making a very serious point: I particularly enjoyed Lord Chancellor Graying, his smug civil service henchman and the LawyerBots. You can sign the petition here… or try voting on 7 May 2015. ...

JCWI has set up an excellent crowd funding campaign to run posters across the UK showcasing migrants and their invaluable contribution to British life. I’ve backed it and I urge all readers of Free Movement to do likewise. There are only 18 day ...

As the darkness outside gathered, the candles inside the church seemed to burn more brightly. Hundreds had gathered at St Martins-in-the-Fields in London yesterday to commemorate Helen Bamber OBE and her work. The event was moving and inspiring but wa ...

Last night I was invited to the launch for a new practitioner text edited by Eric Fripp, The Law and Practice of Expulsion and Exclusion from the United Kingdom: Deportation, Removal, Exclusion and Deprivation of Citizenship. There were a number ...

My ebook on costs in immigration cases is now available for purchase. It covers costs in statutory appeals and in judicial review cases, case law on unreasonable conduct, the law on wasted costs, costs for litigants in person, the circumstances where ...

The Free Movement January sale ends this Friday, 16 January 2015. New content has just been added for members, so sign up now to get access to over 30 CPD hours of invaluable training materials. Use code JANSALE to get 25% off individual membership an ...

Want to know who might qualify as a refugee? What the legal requirements are? What reasons the Home Office relies on to refuse cases and what counter arguments are available? Who might be excluded from refugee status? I have just finished a new ebook, ...

Looks interesting: “The UK is like the Holy Grail and they’re all expecting the crusades. We have to give it to them.” Laurence loves to go out, get wrecked and rave to dubstep. He pays for it with a job at UK Immigration Control. Deciding who d ...

Just a quick post to say that I’ve finished an ebook on Surinder Singh: EU free movement for British citizens. It covers how EU law works, goes over the judgments in Surinder Singh and O v Netherlands, examines the UK’s regulations and Home Of ...

Sign up now as a Free Movement Member and get a free Immigration Act 2014 ebook! Free Movement Membership starts at £50 plus VAT per person for groups of 10 or more and is available to all. Membership includes access to the forums and is a cheap and ...

In partnership with Legal Action Group, Garden Court Chambers’ Public Law Team is pleased to present an up-to-date overview of all aspects of public law, together with cutting-edge strategies for securing positive outcomes. Click image for full ...

This film looks interesting, and I’ve agreed to participate in a panel discussion beforehand, it being literally just round the corner from where I live in East Finchley. Full details and tickets here. ...

The difference between a recession and a boom, as any legal aid lawyer will tell you, is that during a boom the government cuts legal aid, whereas during a recession they cut everything else as well. There was a timely reminder yesterday from Presiden ...

From The Guardian write up: Casting you as a border guard for a fictitious eastern European republic, your job is to decide whether a succession of would-be immigrants have the right paperwork to get through. Presented in charming 8-bit style, it̵ ...

I first met Zahir when he transferred to the United Kingdom Immigrants Advice Service (UKIAS) office in Manchester in 1974. I often recall sitting in his office discussing cases, seeking his expert advice and telling him of our plans for the developme ...

The latest issue of Forced Migration Review, Issue 44 on Detention, alternatives to detention and deportation, has been made available for free. It is a huge issue with a range of really interesting looking articles. As well as covering the headline t ...

The UK is a party to and has ratified both of the Statelessness Conventions. However, until recently there has been inconsistency in approach to those asylum (and other) applicants who are without a nationality, and often a failure to record or even t ...

Family lawyers and courts are blazing a bit of a trail with use of Skype technology for hearing low cost evidence from abroad. In the recently reported case of Re ML (Use of Skype Technology) [2013] EWHC 2091 (Fam) Mr Justice Peter Jackson reports on ...

A special free edition of the journal Judicial Review, published by Hart, also publishers of Michael ‘Avocado of Justice‘ Fordham’s brilliant Judicial Review Handbook. The special edition focusses on the proposed legal aid changes, a ...

Really useful and concise best practice guide for country experts in asylum and immigration cases in the United Kingdom by Anthony Good and Tobias Kelly. Immigration lawyers would be well advised routinely to provide this to their experts. It covers t ...

On Wednesday evening, a group of activists, lawyers and campaigners gathered in East London to discuss the Government’s ‘Go Home’ campaign and to demonstrate their solidarity with immigrant and refugee communities. The event was attended by Gard ...

Kent Martin is a regular and long time Free Movement reader and sent this in for the blog. I thought it made an interesting contrast to the absence of positive media coverage in this country. I’m an Australian/Brit who has spent over a decade in ...

Last week saw the anniversary of the miserable new family immigration rules, introduced on 9 July 2012. Heartache and anguish was predicted and has, tragically, come to pass. I attended and spoke at the demonstration outside the Home Office co-ordinat ...

European Asylum Information Database A well designed and useful new resource website from ECRE and partners offering comparisons between different European asylum procedures, reception conditions and detention policies. ...

As most of you know, Renaissance Chambers has developed expertise in conducting Tamil asylum claims.  The issues involved in these cases have been previously covered on Free Movement here and these include in particular Chambers’ and the NGOs’ ef ...

Comprehensive list of LASPO resources From the Legal Aid Handbook people, brand new edition available to buy now. ...

I recently twisted Margaret Phelan’s arm into arranging for me to receive a Kindle copy of the latest (and greatest) edition Phelan and Gillespie’s Immigration Law Handbook, known to all immigration lawyers as the bench book for immigratio ...

Hard copy left, Kindle right (buying via these links throws me a very small bungreferral fee) Amazon doesn’t yet have an image but for those wondering about this year’s colour, it is a bit like the 2003 model but a slightly mintier green. ...

The charity Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) asked me to speak at their AGM last night and I was delighted to accept. It was held at Amnesty International’s Human Rights Action Centre in Shoreditch. I expected the auditorium seating to split ...

The publishers, Sweet & Maxwell, have been kind enough to provide a review copy of the 2nd edition of Free Movement of Persons in the Enlarged European Union by Nicola Rogers, Rick Scannell and John Walsh. Nicola and Rick are formerly of Garden Co ...

I came across the European Database of Asylum Law (EDAL) yesterday (hat tip to the Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid Newsletter (FRLAN)) and thought it was worth sharing with readers. It is funded by the European Commission’s European Refugee Fund and run b ...