Asylum support during the pandemic: the year in review
Barred from working and mainstream benefits, for many in the asylum system their only option for money and shelter is by requesting support from the Home Office. A year into the pandemic, the asylum support system has seen significant changes. This ar ...
16th March 2021Lack of legal advice for migrants in prison ruled “discriminatory”
The High Court in SM v Lord Chancellor [2021] EWHC 418 (Admin) has held that free legal advice must be made available to immigration detainees held in prisons, bringing access to lawyers into line with the legal advice scheme operating in immigration ...
26th February 2021Upper Tribunal guidance on credible documentary evidence
The Upper Tribunal in QC (verification of documents; Mibanga duty) China [2021] UKUT 33 (IAC) has given useful guidance on how to approach documentary evidence submitted by asylum appellants. The tribunal has also clarified the circumstances in whic ...
23rd February 2021Court of Appeal rejects lowering threshold for denying refugee status to extremists
How serious must a person’s “extremism” be to justify exclusion from the Refugee Convention? Three years ago, the Court of Appeal in Youssef & N2 v Secretary of State for the Home Department lowered the bar for exclusion from the Co ...
14th January 2021Eight-month delay in sourcing bail accommodation “reasonable” during pandemic
In the case of Mahboubian v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWHC 3289 (Admin), the High Court decided that the Home Office couldn’t be held responsible for an eight-month delay in finding immigration bail accommodation for a high-r ...
14th December 2020London authorities refuse to cooperate in targeting of rough sleeping migrants
This week Immigration Rule changes targeting rough sleeping migrants came into force. The Home Office has confirmed that the new Rules will not be enforced until official guidance is published, but the changes have been met with defiance across the bo ...
3rd December 2020County Court takes dim view of Fast Track detainee’s false imprisonment claim
In Ali v Home Office EW Misc 27 (CC) [2020], the County Court robustly dismissed a false imprisonment claim brought by an Afghan refugee who was detained for 98 days under the Detained Fast Track process in 2015. County Court cases are rarely report ...
3rd December 2020Deporting gay asylum seeker a violation of Article 3, human rights court finds
In B & C v Switzerland (application no. 43987/16 and 889/19) the European Court of Human Rights has unanimously held that the deportation of asylum seekers to countries where they risk persecution for their sexual orientation would violate the Art ...
19th November 2020Online Right to Rent checks launch later this month
Right to Rent checks can be carried out online and in real time from 25 November 2020 onwards. Under the new scheme, landlords will be able to conduct checks on whether prospective tenants are permitted to rent using a Home Office webpage (not yet liv ...
9th November 2020Wildly unlawful bail policy gets only minor tweaks, for now
The Home Office has released new interim guidance on the immigration bail accommodation system. The 15-page document introduces a couple of minor changes to address the High Court’s damning criticism of the department’s bail accommodation poli ...
4th November 2020“Compassionate” Home Office targets rough sleepers, again
Following the failings identified by the Windrush Lessons Learned Review, Priti Patel promised a “compassionate… people first” Home Office. But over the past few months the Home Office seems to have entertained only the most inhumane imm ...
29th October 2020Bail accommodation system ruled “systemically unfair”
The Immigration Act 2016 brought about extensive changes to the support available to people on immigration bail. Since those changes came into force in January 2018, tens of thousands of people have struggled against the harsh new system, which has ke ...
1st September 2020“Alarming lack of oversight and accountability” at short-term holding facilities
The prisons inspector has recommended a national overhaul of the short-term detention system after an inspection of the Home Office’s 13 short-term holding facilities (STHFs). The report by the Chief Inspector of Prisons paints a picture of mism ...
25th June 2020Judge intervenes to end Home Office dithering over bail accommodation
In the case of Merca v SSHD [2020] EWHC 1479 (Admin) the High Court ordered the Home Office to release the claimant within four days. One week and two extension of time requests later, the Home Office has now complied with that order. Mr Merca, detai ...
23rd June 2020The Refugee Convention: who are refugees and asylum seekers?
This piece is about refugees, asylum seekers, and the Refugee Convention. It outlines who can be a refugee, and how being a refugee and having “refugee status” are two very different things. We also explore the rights and entitlements avai ...
5th June 2020Immigration bail policy updated
The Home Office has updated its policy guidance on immigration bail, with a couple of changes to note. First, asylum seekers who have exhausted their appeal rights will no longer automatically be subject to study restrictions. This is the result of ...
3rd March 2020Don’t clog up the Admin Court with damages claims, warns Court of Appeal
The Court of Appeal in ZA (Pakistan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWCA Civ 146 has made a plea to lawyers to transfer their wrongful detention claims to the Queen’s Bench Division or County Court once the detention issue h ...
17th February 2020“Nothing inherently wrong” with healthcare system for vulnerable detainees in prison
The High Court has refused to extend key safeguards under the Adults at Risk policy to immigration detainees held in prisons. In MR (Pakistan) & Anor v Secretary of State for Justice & Ors [2019] EWHC 3567 (Admin), Mr Justice Supperstone decid ...
8th January 2020Upper Tribunal: no reason to change Sudan country guidance
The Upper Tribunal in AAR & AA (Non-Arab Darfuris – return) Sudan [2019] UKUT 282 (IAC) has rejected a Home Office attempt to resume returns of non-Arab Darfuris to Sudan. The tribunal upheld its previous guidance, reaffirming the position t ...
20th September 2019Immigration detainees must be given the “true reason” for their detention
A real mammoth of a case: R (HS) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWHC 2070 (Admin). The claimant took what looks like a kitchen sink approach to his unlawful detention claim, succeeding on the fourth ground: that he wasn’t gi ...
31st July 2019Court of Appeal demands individual proportionality assessments for EU citizens detained pending deportation
The Home Office cannot detain an EU citizen pending deportation without first considering whether detention is “proportionate and necessary” under EU law, the Court of Appeal has said in R (Lauzikas) v Secretary of State for the Home Depar ...
15th July 2019Court of Appeal quashes clearly unfounded certificate in Albanian asylum claim
This week the Court of Appeal quashed the certification of an Albanian asylum claim as “clearly unfounded”. In SP (Albania) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] EWCA Civ 951, the court found that the Home Office had not properly inv ...
21st June 2019