Updates, commentary, training and advice on immigration and asylum law

Round up

THANKS FOR READING

Older content is locked

A great deal of time and effort goes into producing the information on Free Movement, become a member of Free Movement to get unlimited access to all articles, and much, much more

TAKE FREE MOVEMENT FURTHER

By becoming a member of Free Movement, you not only support the hard-work that goes into maintaining the website, but get access to premium features;

  • Single login for personal use
  • FREE downloads of Free Movement ebooks
  • Access to all Free Movement blog content
  • Access to all our online training materials
  • Access to our busy forums
  • Downloadable CPD certificates
Rounding up

There have been two big developments in the last week or so: the ‘ending’ of child detention and the successful challenge to the temporary mad cap (as I link to think of it).

On child detention, Alan Travis of The Guardian was clearly well briefed as he managed to publish a full and useful article even before the announcement was complete. Critiques have been published by a number of campaigners and charities. See this article by Medhi Hassan for a useful summary. Basically, detention may continue until May and even beyond then in some circumstances.

Despite these reservations, the announcement is undoubtedly good news. It also makes one wonder what on earth the previous government and UKBA officials thought they were doing in the past. Since the Coalition was formed UKBA has been trialling various ways of encouraging families who lose their cases to depart voluntarily. It turns out that telling them what is going on, informing them of consequences and assisting them to leave usually does the trick, as opposed to snatching them in a traumatic dawn raid with no warning. I just wish there was some way to hold to account those who were responsible for the previous policy and all the damage it did to those affected. May they and their children never experience anything so awful.

The other big news was the JCWI victory in the High Court in their challenge to the temporary mad cap on migrants under the Points Based System. It was inevitable that the Home Office was going to lose this – as sure as night follows day is no exaggeration. No Parliamentary approval for the change was sought, so it was struck down. The earlier Court of Appeal case of Pankina and High Court case of English UK had to be followed the court. What sort of duff legal advice do Ministers get, I have to ask? Or do they get good legal advice but go ahead anyway? Either seems possible.

Relevant articles chosen for you
Free Movement

Free Movement

The Free Movement blog was founded in 2007 by Colin Yeo, a barrister at Garden Court Chambers specialising in immigration law. The blog provides updates and commentary on immigration and asylum law by a variety of authors.

Comments

3 Responses

  1. Is there any way you or your colleagues can kick up a fuss with the UKBA with regard to crappy interim cap/measures? With regard to Tier 2 (old work permits) absolutely no information whatsoever is given on their website regarding the workings of the interim cap (which I sadly believe will still be revived after the appearance of due process being followed). The only thing on the UKBA website is that Tier 2 applications will be considered by a “panel” that sits once a month. It is only when I rang them up that I was told only positions offering a salary over £30K might have a chance of winning whereas officially by email I was told that UKBA couldnt comment on an individual case without seeing the whole application. Only “highly trusted representatives” are given this information which throws up really interesting issues

    1) hmm… bit of conflict for lawyers acting for clients but are “highly trusted” by UKBA

    2) why is information being witheld from the website (deliberately or otherwise). Does UKBA want people to make crap applications so they can rake fees in?

    3) Isnt it against public policy to only give govt policy to favourite lawyers and not to the public at large especially as it expects the public to get info from its website?

    4) There is a JR in here somewhere……

    Am annoyed and rant over.