All Articles: Legacy

Back in 2006, even before this blog first began and in the aftermath of his predecessor’s resignation, then Home Secretary John Reid declared that his department was “not fit for purpose”. A huge backlog of some half a million cases had been uncovered and the department would aim to deal...

14th November 2014
BY Colin Yeo

Following an oral renewal hearing on permission, our colleague Ripon Akther, instructed by Waleed Hassan of Malik and Malik, and their client were granted permission by His Honour Judge Thornton QC in the Legacy case of R (on the application of Prenga) v SSHD [2013] EWHC 1981 (Admin).

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23rd July 2013
BY Sarah Pinder

In asylum cases it is still referred to as The Legacy, as if it were a second rate Spagetti Western. In immigration cases it has the more prosaic title of the ‘migration refusal pool’. The UK Border Agency’s inspectorate has today [update: link to report here] unveiled yet more cases...

23rd January 2013
BY freemovement

Carrying on from FM’s open season article last week, it is clear that immigration lawyers are getting a hard time of it at the moment: first it was judge bashing and now the lawyers are in the firing line. The pernicious pastime of naming and shaming the legal profession needs...

28th November 2012
BY Ripon Akther

Following on from Hakemi, the High Court has again scrutinised the leave to remain under the “Legacy” cases, and found the SSHD’s adherence to the policy wanting. In a welcome move last Friday Mr Stephen Morris QC, sitting as Deputy High Court Judge, quashed as unlawful the decision to refuse...

6th November 2012
BY Ripon Akther

In a spate of very significant judgments last week, the long awaited legacy case has finally come out: Hakemi v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2012] EWHC 1967 (Admin). Nicola Braganza was led by Hugh Southey QC, both of Tooks Chambers. As many suspected we are still in...

23rd July 2012
BY Ripon Akther

Is it a bird, is it a plane or…is it in fact a policy?  Now the UKBA would vigorously deny this, they would deny that there is any kind of amnesty at all. However, the evidence would point to the contrary. Essentially prior to July 2011 if you had claimed...

19th June 2012
BY Ripon Akther

The Government has finally gotten around to amending the Immigration Rules to make them a bit less human rightsy looking. This follows a number of pledges from David Cameron, Theresa May and Damian Green to do so. Paragraph 395C of the rules is to be deleted, as predicted here on...

20th January 2012
BY Free Movement

Not much to report on this one, just that I tried a Freedom of Information request on the criteria for deciding Legacy cases and get a non-answer back in return. The request was refused to begin with but that decision was overturned on appeal. The information gleaned is already more...

1st June 2011
BY Free Movement

[UPDATE 31/3/11: see Comments below for further information and updates] This interesting snippet of information recently came my way and I thought it was worth sharing. A Freedom of Information request recently revealed outcomes to the Legacy backlog clearance exercise: Number of cases granted Indefinite Leave to Remain = 145,843...

30th March 2011
BY Free Movement

UKBA has laid Statement of Changes CM7929 to give effect (or, at least, limited effect) to the judgment of the Supreme Court in ZO (Somalia) [2010] UKSC 36. This was the case in which the Court held that an asylum claim is still an asylum claim for the purposes of...

23rd August 2010
BY Free Movement

UPDATE: see this judgment. There have been some interesting developments on permission to work for Legacy asylum seekers. Click here for the Story So Far. I read in some stakeholder minutes recently that UKBA thought it had only be judicially reviewed once about failure to grant permission to work following...

23rd October 2009
BY Free Movement

The Daily Telegraph has claimed that there is a new policy that asylum seekers may be granted settlement after a wait of four to six (or possibly eight) years following a quiet change to immigration policies. The policy is allegedly set out in a memo The Telegraph claims to have seen...

9th October 2009
BY Free Movement

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...

17th June 2009
BY Free Movement

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...

29th May 2009
BY Free Movement

An interesting judgment has just come out in which the High Court has held to be unlawful the policy of a blanket denial of right to work for those caught in the Legacy backlog. It is called Tekle v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2008] EWHC 3064 (Admin).  This...

11th December 2008
BY Free Movement

A few higher court immigration cases came out recently, on which I will post in due course. One was HG & Ors v SSHD [2008] EWHC 2685 (Admin), in which Mr Justice Underhill grappled with the Legacy backlog and the five year wait faced by many Legatees. In other related news,...

11th November 2008
BY Free Movement

There are still quite a few people coming across this blog by searching for news about ‘Legacy’ cases. See previous posts on this if you are new to the subject. The news, such as it is, is that status still being granted in a lot of cases, apparently, but now...

3rd November 2008
BY Free Movement

I’m back, after a prolonged absence and thoughts of ending it all etc etc. The blog, not me. I’m fine, thank you. The news is that of the 6000 or so (roughly 6,800, apparently) families who were the first to receive Legacy questionnaires, most of them will be getting status...

7th March 2008
BY Free Movement

A very well sourced rumour has it that 95% of the outstanding 450,000 asylum ‘legacy’ cases so far resolved have resulted in grants of status. However, I hear that the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal have been told to prepare for extra appeals. Who in their right mind appeals against a...

10th December 2007
BY Free Movement

Further to previous posts on this subject, there have been suggestions that the legacy ‘case resolution exercise’ is producing some surprisingly humane outcomes. An organisation previously unknown to me called Positive Action In Housing (PAIH – I’ve included a link on my blogroll as they seem to be making good use of a...

18th October 2007
BY Free Movement

There’s no amnesty. That’s all. I wish it wasn’t necessary to repeat this, but good immigration lawyers and good community groups are reporting increasing numbers of walk-in clients who have been charged large sums to make an application under the alleged amnesty, and now some idiot has put out a...

31st July 2007
BY Free Movement

Exactly one year ago, on 25 July 2006, then Home Secretary John Reid announced that his officials had found around 400,000 to 450,000 unclosed asylum files found down the back of the sofas at Lunar House, home of the then Immigration and Nationality Directorate, now the Border and Immigration Agency. Oddly,...

25th July 2007
BY Free Movement
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