‘Five Supreme Court justices today [24th April] unanimously allowed the home secretary’s appeal over a claim for leave to remain by an asylum seeker currently in “limbo status.” ‘
Law Society's Gazette, 25th April 2024
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
‘The Council of Europe’s human rights watchdog has condemned Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda scheme, saying it raises “major issues about the human rights of asylum seekers and the rule of law”.’
The Guardian, 23rd April 2024
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda deportation bill will become law after peers eventually backed down on amending it, opening the way for legal battles over the potential removal of dozens of people seeking asylum.’
The Guardian, 22nd April 2024
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The Court of Appeal has dismissed the appeal of Mrs Akhtar who had been resident in the UK for 39 years (since 1985). Elisabeth Laing, Phillips and Males LJJ held that the Upper Tribunal had not failed to consider all the relevant circumstances when reaching its decision under section 117C(6) of Part 5A of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 and they dismissed Mrs Akhtar’s appeal. Judges Mandalia and Hanson had not erroneously concluded that a foreign criminal had failed to meet the statutory exceptions in section 117C(6) when deciding her rights under article 8 of the ECHR did not outweigh the public interest in her deportation. Mrs Akhtar and her husband (“H”) were both convicted criminal offences on 21 April 2016 and they were duly sentenced, respectively, to a total of 4 years and three months’ imprisonment and to 14 years’ imprisonment (reduced to 11 on appeal) for their roles in a substantial and long-running mortgage fraud. Mrs Akhtar was convicted of the offences of cheating the public revenue between 1 January 2004 and 26 September 2012, entering into an arrangement to facilitate the acquisition, retention, use or control of criminal property and two counts of conspiracy to obtain a money transfer by deception. She was sentenced, respectively, to 30 months’ imprisonment, 30 months’ imprisonment, concurrent and also 21 months’ imprisonment, consecutive, and 21 months’ imprisonment, concurrent. Mrs Akhtar, who entered the UK as a fiancée in 1985, complained that the UT did not take her long residence into account in considering section 117C(6).’
EIN Blog, 22nd April 2024
Source: www.ein.org.uk
‘Rishi Sunak’s plan to fly people seeking asylum to Rwanda this spring appears to have been put back to the summer after House of Lords insisted on changes to the scheme.’
The Guardian, 19th April 2024
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Albanians volunteering to be repatriated under a fast-track deportation deal are being detained unnecessarily for several weeks at taxpayers’ expense, the prisons watchdog has found.’
The Guardian, 8th April 2024
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The myriad problems with the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, as well as the policy that the Bill is supposed to facilitate, have been clearly documented. One common criticism is that the Bill would precipitate a “constitutional crisis” by provoking the courts into refusing to recognise its legal effect. Adam Tucker argues that the Bill’s most problematic sections could very well “count as a novel entry in our canon of possible limits of parliamentary sovereignty”. Jeff King argues that the House of Lords would be justified in radically amending or voting the Bill down, precisely because of the danger that it might incite a constitutional crisis. The Lords suggested sweeping amendments to the Bill, all of which were rejected by the Commons. The Bill will continue to go through a ping-pong process between each House before a final wording is settled.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 26th March 2024
Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org
‘The House of Lords has inflicted fresh defeats on the government over its flagship Rwanda bill, meaning further delay to it becoming law.’
BBC News, 21st March 2024
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda deportation bill could be forced on to the statute books without fulfilling the government’s legal commitment to independent scrutiny, the former borders watchdog has told peers.’
The Guardian, 19th March 2024
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The Home Office acted unlawfully in trying to deport a British-born man who has never left the country to Portugal, from where his parents arrived more than 30 years ago, a judge has ruled.’
The Guardian, 18th March 2024
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘In November 2023, the Supreme Court of the UK dealt a critical blow to the government’s proposal to send certain asylum seekers to the Republic of Rwanda. In AAA and Others v the Home Secretary, the Court ruled that removal to Rwanda would be unlawful because that country was not, at the time, a ‘safe country’.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 14th March 2024
Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org
‘Civil servants have threatened ministers with legal action over concerns that senior Home Office staff could be in breach of international law if they implement the government’s Rwanda deportation bill.’
The Guardian, 12th March 2024
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The government has suffered five further defeats in the House of Lords over its Rwanda bill.’
BBC News, 6th March 2024
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘Safe Third Country (STC) agreements involve the transfer of protection-seekers from one State to another. They take different forms, including bilateral treaties (the UK-Rwanda Treaty), political agreements (the Italy-Albania MoU) and regional mechanisms (Dublin III). They are usually justified as a means of sharing responsibility for protecting refugees and ‘managing’ access to asylum determination processes, as is the case for the Canada-US Safe Third Country Agreement. In other contexts their explicit purpose is to deter and to punish.
EIN Blog, 29th February 2024
Source: www.ein.org.uk
‘Rishi Sunak’s asylum laws have introduced a “perma-backlog” of up to 55,000 people who cannot have their claims processed and risk being left indefinitely in taxpayer-funded temporary accommodation, according to a new report.’
The Guardian, 28th February 2024
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The UK’s chief inspector of borders and immigration has called it “scandalous” that his watchdog role could be left vacant while the Rwanda scheme is introduced.’
The Guardian, 19th February 2024
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘A woman is facing deportation, and being separated from her husband and 10-year-old son, despite a court ruling that the family have the right to live together in the UK.’
The Guardian, 15th February 2024
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The UK government’s controversial Rwanda legislation that deems the African country as a safe place to deport people to is fundamentally incompatible with Britain’s human rights obligations and places it in breach of international law, according to a damning parliamentary report.’
The Guardian, 12th February 2024
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘International students accused of cheating at English-language tests are planning a fresh push to clear their names 10 years on, with thousands thought to have been victims of a gross miscarriage of justice.’
The Guardian, 11th February 2024
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘An Italian man has been removed from the UK despite holding a Home Office certificate explicitly stating he has a right to travel in and out of the country while officials process his application to live and work in the country post-Brexit.’
The Guardian, 8th February 2024
Source: www.theguardian.com
© Inner Temple Library 2024