‘A judge in the high court has ordered the Home Office to move a torture and trafficking victim out of a “prison-like” hotel surrounded by an 8ft wall.’
The Guardian, 18th May 2021
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘On 10 May 2021, the Supreme Court heard the appeal in R (Majera) (formerly SM (Rwanda)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (“SSHD”). The question on appeal is whether a defective order granting immigration bail has legal effect.’
UKSC Blog, 18th May 2021
Source: ukscblog.com
‘Mrs Lynda Mahabir came to the UK as a baby aged two months in 1969. She lived in the UK until 1977 but was forcibly removed by her father to Trinidad in 1977. The Home Office’s failure to document her lawful immigration status meant that she was unable to return to the UK for 41 years, when she was finally granted leave to remain pursuant to the Windrush scheme in 2018. However, the Home Office demanded £22,909 in application fees from her husband and five children (including two minors) and refused to consider their entry visa applications under the Windrush scheme. But the family did not have the £22,909 to pay the Home Office. Sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge, Mr Tim Smith held that the SSHD committed “a colossal interference” in Mrs Mahabir’s right to family life because she either had to forego the remedies the executive had put in place with the express intention of remedying the injustice suffered by her and others like her, or else she had to break up the family. Notably, she broke up the family, hoping that it was only temporary, but in the process she suffered the “colossal interference” with her right to family life identified by Lord Wilson in R (Quila) v SSHD [2012] 1 AC 621. The court noted that by 2018 heartbreaking accounts of the Windrush scandal were reported in the media. The plight of Windrush victims was well known indeed, and these events marked a racist epoch in British history.’
EIN Blog, 17th May 2021
Source: www.ein.org.uk
‘The Home Office has pursued a policy of psychological brutality by locking up scores of torture survivors in solitary confinement for indefinite periods, according to fresh testimony from immigration detainees.’
The Guardian, 15th May 2021
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The UK government has recently introduced a controversial new set of rules that aim to make rough sleeping grounds for refusal or cancellation of a migrant’s permission to remain within the UK.’
Family Law, 11th May 2021
Source: www.familylaw.co.uk
‘The Home Office unlawfully prevented the children and husband of a Windrush generation woman from joining her in the UK, separating the family for almost three years in a manner the high court ruled represented “a colossal interference” in her right to family life.’
The Guardian, 6th May 2021
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘A high court judge has criticised the British home secretary in court and said he found it “extremely troubling” after one of her officials admitted the Home Office might have acted unlawfully in changing its asylum accommodation policy during the pandemic.’
The Guardian, 6th May 2021
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Campaigners say they are concerned about the low number of compensation payments to victims of the Windrush scandal.’
BBC News, 4th May 2021
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘Immigration and civil litigation were the two areas of legal practice hit hardest by the pandemic last year, with private client and family law “insulated” from the impact, new research has found.’
Legal Futures, 5th May 2021
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
‘More victims of trafficking will be locked up in detention and forcibly removed from the UK after MPs approved a change in Home Office rules relating to this vulnerable group, campaigners have warned.’
The Guardian, 5th May 2021
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘R (Lawal) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (2021), Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber), Unreported, JR/626/2020 (V).
The death of an immigration detainee, as with all prisoners, is rightly subject to legal scrutiny. This is because detainees are completely under the state’s control. Article 2 ECHR requires that the state carry out an effective investigation into all deaths in detention where there is a reasonable suspicion that the death was unnatural. A coroner is required to hold an inquest into all deaths in custody, and specifically a jury inquest where there is reason to suspect the death is violent or unnatural. In this case, a two-judge panel of the Upper Tribunal (President of the Upper Tribunal, Mr Justice Lane, and Upper Tribunal Judge Canavan) found that the respondent Home Secretary had breached her Article 2 procedural obligations in respect of deaths in immigration detention. In particular, she had failed to ensure that crucial witness evidence was secured for use at an inquest and had failed to halt the deportation of a relevant witness.’
UK Human Rights Blog, 29th April 2021
Source: ukhumanrightsblog.com
‘The government is being urged to remove the Windrush compensation scheme from the Home Office after new data showed 214 applicants have been waiting more than 18 months and five people more than two years.’
The Independent, 2nd May 2021
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘Cross-party MPs have attacked Home Office plans that will see more trafficking survivors locked up in immigration detention and threatened with removal, warning that it is a “hugely retrograde step”.’
The Independent, 29th April 2021
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘A five-year-old boy has won a case against the Home Office as high court judges declared the government’s “no recourse to public funds” (NRPF) policy unlawful for the second time in a year because it drives some families into destitution and breaches the duty to safeguard child welfare. Thousands of children living in poverty are likely to benefit from the ruling.’
The Guardian, 29th April 2021
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘A Windrush man who has been stranded in Trinidad and Tobago for almost 40 years after his UK citizenship was withdrawn is set to return to Britain.’
The Independent, 29th April 2021
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘Almost 200 organisations have branded a government consultation on fundamental changes to refugee policy “a sham”. A total of 192 refugee, human rights, legal and faith groups have signed a public statement condemning the six-week consultation on the government’s New Plan for Immigration as “vague, unworkable, cruel and potentially unlawful”.’
The Guardian, 30th April 2021
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Hubert Howard was born in 1956 and came to the United Kingdom in 1960, aged almost 4 from Jamaica. He was part of the Windrush Generation. No doubt like all West Indians of that time, including my parents, he thought he was a British Citizen.’
EIN Blog, 27th April 2021
Source: www.ein.org.uk
‘Windrush victims have been unlawfully denied British citizenship on the grounds of minor criminal records, the High Court has ruled. In a judgement handed down on Friday, the Home Office was found to have wrongly imposed the “good character” requirement on Windrush cases, which led to people who have been in Britain for decades being refused citizenship on the basis of minor convictions.’
The Independent, 24th April 2021
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘n a major blow to Priti Patel’s immigration plans, EU countries have said they will not strike bilateral agreements with Britain to facilitate the deportation of refugees to Europe.’
The Independent, 26th April 2021
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘The full scale of Home Office failures in managing former military sites as makeshift accommodation for asylum seekers is laid bare in a raft of damning documents seen by the Guardian.’
The Guardian, 23rd April 2021
Source: www.theguardian.com
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