All Articles: Immigration news

Every year I try to take stock and look ahead to the coming year. Last year I picked out delays in the asylum system, historically low figures for the removal of failed asylum seekers, low levels of asylum support and small boat crossings as major issues. Two of these have been...

3rd January 2023
BY Colin Yeo

The tribunal quarterly statistics for the period July to September 2022 show that waiting times for appeals have increased, but the number of new cases entering the tribunals continues to decrease. The number of cases being decided has also increased. The statistics show that the average time to clear all...

9th December 2022
BY Josie Laidman

Over the last few days refugees have hit the headlines once again. Amongst other things, there has been talks of a two-tier asylum system, and it was reported that the Home Office’s Afghan citizens’ resettlement scheme (ACRS) has not yet accepted and evacuated anyone from Afghanistan. Suella Braverman’s forward to...

6th December 2022
BY Josie Laidman

Hermes Legal is a new OISC-approved level 3 firm dealing with Immigration and Asylum matters. We are looking to hire experienced Caseworkers, Solicitors, Practice Manager and Consultant Solicitors. We have one office in Leicester and are opening other branches in London, Birmingham and Nottingham. Please find below the short description...

5th December 2022
BY Free Movement

As we move into a post-pandemic working environment, the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) has been developing its working practices, according to the regulator’s annual report for 2021/22. And as it catches up on delayed investigations (conducting 81 in the year 2021/22) the OISC secures two convictions for...

1st December 2022
BY Josie Laidman

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) published the Immigration and Asylum Thematic Review and new Immigration work – Guidance on 23 November 2022. The review acknowledges that users of immigration and asylum services can be vulnerable and the consequences of poor advice can be particularly severe and difficult to rectify. Three...

29th November 2022
BY Jawaid Luqmani

At the now infamous Manston processing centre in Kent, conditions are dire. Home Secretary Suella Braverman has known for weeks about the situation and did nothing until the media stepped in last week. But the UK is not alone in struggling to provide new arrivals access to safe and legal...

9th November 2022
BY Charlotte Rubin

On 3 November 2022, the latest quarterly release of statistics on modern slavery claims was published, covering 1 July to 30 September this year. During this period, 4,586 people were referred into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) or via the Duty to Notify as potential victims of modern slavery. This...

7th November 2022
BY Sonia Lenegan

It hasn’t been a great week to be the Home Secretary or a Home Office official. Since Suella Braverman’s statement to the House of Commons on Monday, there has been one crisis after another. The Manston facility remains egregiously overcrowded. The camp is designed to hold no more than 1000...

4th November 2022
BY Nicholas Reed Langen

Small boat crossings attract a lot of media and political attention. The images we see of refugees arriving on our shores clearly upset some people. The Conservative Member of Parliament for Dover and Deal in successive tweets, for example, says crossings are “no refugee crisis… but simply illegal immigration” and...

31st October 2022
BY Colin Yeo

Suella Braverman was Home Secretary for 43 days.  

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19th October 2022
BY Colin Yeo

The Home Office has published a new statement of changes to the Immigration Rules (HC 719). The explanatory memorandum confirms that the changes are largely focused on the government’s continued efforts to simplify the rules, and on implementing policy changes that have recently been put in place. The majority of...

19th October 2022
BY Josie Laidman

One month into the job, it’s clear that Suella Braverman is good at making the headlines. However, some of her rhetoric may seem familiar. The government’s hostile environment policy is well-rehearsed and the media has played a significant and long-term role in developing the rhetoric that we see today. It...

17th October 2022
BY Kat Langley

There are a number of general and individual judicial review challenges to the government’s policy of removing asylum seekers to Rwanda. To recap, in April 2022 the government announced a Migration and Economic Development Partnership with Rwanda for the provision of “an asylum partnership arrangement”. Under this arrangement, asylum seekers...

11th October 2022
BY Jed Pennington

It has been six months since the UK announced its initial response to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, allowing those affected by the outbreak of conflict to arrive or remain in the UK under visa-based immigration routes. Three routes were made available: These visas grant three years limited leave to...

10th October 2022
BY Jennifer Blair

As we reported last week, a recent letter from government lawyers clarified the Home Office’s position that “[s]ince July 2022… migrants who cross the Channel in small boats who are either rescued or directed to land at designated locations by the authorities are no longer deemed to be illegal entrants,...

6th October 2022
BY Jed Pennington

Suella Braverman’s speech to the Conservative Party conference yesterday evening confirmed two things. She really doesn’t like the Human Rights Act, the Modern Slavery Act or the European Court of Human Rights. And that the problems with the UK immigration system are complex and intense. One of these problems is...

5th October 2022
BY Colin Yeo

In a bizarrely unhinged interview with the Sun on Sunday, Home Secretary Suella Braverman has laid into modern slavery victims and the family members of postgraduate students. These two unlikely groups are apparently the latest bogeymen to be stopping Britain from being great again. Promising “dramatic action” to stop small...

3rd October 2022
BY Colin Yeo

With the government’s controversial mini-budget causing economic turmoil, Liz Truss has been steadfast that her aim is to boost economic growth in the United Kingdom. Central to achieving this will be a series of key reforms to the work-based immigration system. The government logic may be that the international talent...

30th September 2022
BY Joanna Hunt

On 25 August 2022, the Home Office announced plans to fast-track the removal of Albanian nationals “with no right to be in the UK” under plans agreed with the Albanian government (it was said) “to tackle the scourge of small boat crossings”. The fast-track removal scheme appeared to be explicitly...

29th September 2022
BY Jed Pennington

We first heard of the Windrush scandal in early 2018, as a result of powerful investigative journalism. It stands for decades of injustice experienced by thousands, whose lawful existence in this country was denied by the state. Individuals faced constant questioning about their rights and entitlements and were told that...

28th September 2022
BY Nicola Burgess

MiCLU are looking to expand their specialist Direct Advice and Representation capacity. MiCLU is a specialist legal and policy hub which provides direct representation, strategic litigation, policy advocacy and legal education in relation to the rights of children and young people in the UK asylum and immigration systems. We are...

22nd September 2022
BY Free Movement

The newly appointed Suella Braverman has told Home Office officials that a top priority of hers is to ban all small boats crossing the Channel to “stop people dying and being at the mercy of people smugglers. We need to take a firm stance.” It seems unlikely that she means...

13th September 2022
BY Josie Laidman

Suella Braverman is the new Home Secretary, replacing the outgoing and failed Priti Patel. It is Braverman’s first cabinet position. She previously served as a controversial Attorney General. In July 2022 Braverman launched her own bid to become Prime Minister when Boris Johnson was forced to resign. Knocked out of...

8th September 2022
BY Colin Yeo

Priti Patel has resigned as Home Secretary. She jumped before she was pushed, with incoming new Prime Minister Liz Truss expected to replace the failed Patel with former Attorney General Suella Braverman. Patel was appointed Home Secretary by Boris Johnson in July 2019. Here we take a look at her...

6th September 2022
BY Colin Yeo

On 5 September, the next in a long line of insufferable prime ministers will be announced. As the Conservative Party enters the final weeks of its leadership race, we ask, what bright ideas do our two hopeful candidates have in store when it comes to Britain’s borders? The last few...

23rd August 2022
BY Alexa Sidor

Conservative Party leadership contender Liz Truss has pledged to expand the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme if she becomes Prime Minister. I have been avoiding commenting on some of the ludicrous and appalling immigration policies we’ve seen aired during the leadership campaign but this one caught my eye as an example of...

3rd August 2022
BY Colin Yeo

The Nationality and Borders Act 2022 was signed into law on 28 April 2022. But there is a difference between a law being “on the statute books” after being passed by Parliament and it actually being “in force”. As we explain below, some of the Act came into force on...

28th June 2022
BY Free Movement

Hot off the virtual presses over at legislation.gov.uk: the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 (Commencement No. 1, Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2022 (SI 2022 No. 590). The instrument brings into force, on 28 June, around a third of the act’s 82 substantive sections. This is in addition to the...

31st May 2022
BY CJ McKinney

The government has published 205 pages worth of changes to the Immigration Rules. The changes are being phased in over the next few months, starting on 6 April 2022. Highlights include: Children who live in the UK for seven years can get immigration permission with settlement either immediately or after...

16th March 2022
BY CJ McKinney

The Ministry of Defence and Home Office have jointly announced that the government will be waiving settlement fees for foreign citizens who have served in the UK armed forces for at least six years or been discharged due to an illness or injury attributable to their service. The change will...

25th February 2022
BY Sarah Pinder

There is a lot going on in immigration law at the moment and we are looking to recruit more specialist contributors to Free Movement. If you can write fluently, you are interested in being read by a wide audience and you are fascinated by immigration law and practice then have a think about joining...

24th January 2022
BY CJ McKinney

The immigration inspector has welcomed an increase in free appointments at visa centres in the UK following a report showing that they have been consistently unavailable. David Neal found that Home Office attempts to keep appointments free despite outsourcing them had “not yet been achieved”. The result has been an...

30th November 2021
BY CJ McKinney

Soul-searching in a large bureaucracy often manifests in well-meaning paperwork. So it is that the Home Office has published an ethical decision-making model. The document is intended to help staff grappling with difficult moral choices in the course of their work.  This was one of the recommendations of the Wendy Williams...

16th November 2021
BY CJ McKinney

This is where we keep tabs on changes to UK immigration laws, rules and procedures brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. We’ve been trying to keep this post continually up to date rather than covering new coronavirus developments as separate blog posts that may become rapidly out of date. Material...

6th September 2021
BY Free Movement

The Nationality and Borders Bill 2021 has lain dormant over the summer but will be taken up again once Parliament returns on 6 September. Down in the miscellaneous provisions is a requirement for people entering the UK without a visa or British/Irish passport to register in advance. Known as electronic...

1st September 2021
BY CJ McKinney

Anna Delvey (née Sorokin) is perhaps the most (in)famous con artist in the world. After bluffing her way into New York high society, she was eventually caught out, convicted of various offences including grand larceny, and received a sentence of 4–12 years in New York state prison (as well as...

13th April 2021
BY Elijah Granet

One of the recommendations to the Home Office in a recent report by the immigration inspector was to “professionalise” Presenting Officers. Among the suggestions was that a code of conduct was necessary for Presenting Officers to establish a consistent standard of behaviour. This recommendation was acted upon relatively quickly, by...

29th March 2021
BY Anonymous

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...

18th March 2021
BY CJ McKinney

With travel bans from so-called “red list” countries, the suspension of travel corridors and today’s long-awaited introduction of compulsory hotel quarantine, those already holding or who have applied for UK visas will be concerned about how these measures may affect their visas and ability to travel to the UK. There...

15th February 2021
BY Bryony Rest
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