Legal Updates

• Rwanda – all is not lost: Asylum Aid’s arguments on why the Home Office must still consider the real risk of people being sent into danger from Rwanda May 17, 2024
  This blog explains why Asylum Aid continues to believe that the Home Office’s interpretation of the Safety of Rwanda Act as excluding consideration of “onward removal” (where someone is removed from Rwanda) claims is wrong and that this guidance is therefore unlawful. We believe that properly interpreted, the Act permits consideration of such claims, provided […]
• Job ad: Head of UK Legal Team, Safe Passage International May 17, 2024
  Closing date: 16 June 2024 Salary: £51,100 – 58,000 gross per annum at 1.0 FTE, or pro rata equivalent if part-time. Working pattern: 1.0 FTE (37.5 hrs per week), or 0.9 or 0.8 FTE. Flexible working requests will be considered. Contract: permanent with a 6 month probationary period Team: UK Legal Team Location: This role […]
• Rwanda: procedural fairness and extensions of time May 16, 2024
  As I explained in a previous blog, in its June 2023 judgment in AAA & Others v SSHD, the Court of Appeal accepted Asylum Aid’s case that, in a majority of cases, the seven day period allowed by the Home Office for those in detention to respond to a notice of intent threatening removal to […]
• Trafficking statistics show positive decisions by the immigration enforcement competent authority are at a record low May 16, 2024
  The latest modern slavery statistics have been published and show that the ‘immigration enforcement competent authority’ had made its lowest percentage of positive conclusive grounds decisions confirming that a person is recognised as a victim of trafficking since it was set up, with a recognition rate of 20.68% for the period January to March 2024. […]
• Rwanda scheme amended to include failed asylum seekers May 15, 2024
  On Monday the Home Office updated the guidance documents relating to removals to Rwanda and retroactively amended the Rwanda agreement to include the possibility of sending failed asylum seekers there. This was done via a letter from the British High Commissioner in Rwanda to Rwanda’s Permanent Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. What […]
• Free Movement Weekly Immigration Newsletter #19 May 14, 2024
  Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! It looks like the government has lost in the High Court in Northern Ireland this morning (Ed: remember the newsletter goes out by email on Mondays – sign up below!), in a challenge to the Illegal Migration Act brought by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. Please just skip past the bit […]
• Migration Advisory Committee says Graduate route should be kept in its current form May 14, 2024
  The Migration Advisory Committee has today published its “rapid review” of the Graduate route, concluding that the route is not being abused and should remain in place in its current form. The letter from the Chair states: We have not found evidence of widespread abuse on the Graduate route, where we define abuse as deliberate […]
• Asylum seekers on Diego Garcia granted bail to access limited areas of the island May 14, 2024
  Following a legal challenge, the small group of Sri Lankan people seeking asylum in Diego Garcia have been granted bail so that they are able to access more of the island beyond the tiny encampment they were kept in previously. We have previously published a post providing the historical context of Diego Garcia and the […]
• High Court in Northern Ireland orders disapplication of certain sections of Illegal Migration Act May 13, 2024
  The High Court in Northern Ireland has held that the Illegal Migration Act 2023 breaches the Windsor Framework, put in place to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland, and ordered the disapplication of provisions of the Act in Northern Ireland. The court also declared certain provisions of the Act to be incompatible […]
• Immigration roundup podcast: April 2024 May 13, 2024
  In the April roundup Colin and Sonia cover the new Rwanda Act and the process for sending a person to Rwanda, challenges to the use of the inadmissibility process, the government’s response to the increase in arrivals of Vietnamese nationals and the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration’s report into deprivation of British Citizenship. […]
• Job Ad: Rainbow Migration are recruiting a Legal Officer May 13, 2024
  CLOSING DATE: 31 MAY 2024 Rainbow Migration, the longest-running charity in Europe dedicated to supporting LGBTQI+ people through the asylum and immigration system, is recruiting a Legal Officer to advise and help improve the representation of LGBTQI+ people seeking asylum, and help change the asylum and immigration system to one that treats everyone with compassion, […]
• What is the 20 year rule on long residence and other private life applications? May 10, 2024
  The immigration rules allow some people to apply to remain in the UK on the basis of long residence. Those who had periods of overstaying can apply for limited leave to remain following 20 years’ continuous residence. We have a separate briefing on applying for indefinite leave to remain for those who have had ten […]
• Briefing: how does the 10 year route in Appendix Long Residence work? May 9, 2024
  Appendix Long Residence of the immigration rules enables a person with 10 continuous and lawful years of residence in the UK to apply for indefinite leave to remain. It is also possible to apply for limited leave to remain in this route. But there are complications and qualifications. What kind of leave counts towards the […]
• Job Ad: Safe Passage International is recruiting an Immigration Lawyer/Immigration Caseworker Supervisor May 9, 2024
  Closing date: Sunday 26th May at 11.59 pm Salary: £34,650 – £42,500 gross per annum at 1.0 FTE Working pattern: 1.0 FTE (37.5 hrs per week), or 0.9 or 0.8 FTE. Flexible working requests will be considered. Contract: 1 x permanent with a 6 months probationary period and 2 x fixed-term for 12 months Team: […]
• Free Movement Weekly Immigration Newsletter #18 May 8, 2024
  Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! The first hearing has been listed in the next round of the Rwanda litigation. On Friday, Mr Justice Chamberlain ordered a rolled up hearing to take place within the window of 4 to 7 June with a time estimate of one day. This is the challenge following on from the pre action […]