Pizza boss banned for hiring two illegal workers – BBC News
‘A pizzeria owner from Cumbria who hired two illegal workers has been banned from being a company director for six years.’
BBC News, 30th January 2024
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Category: immigration
Home Office transforms the landscape – Law Society’s Gazette
‘The Home Office has announced significant measures to reduce legal migration to the UK, following the latest statistics showing record net migration figures for 2023. They will likely be implemented during Q2 2024, although the exact timeframe is yet to be finalised. They will significantly increase the costs to employers who wish to sponsor overseas workers and affect British citizens and settled persons in the UK looking to bring family here.’
Law Society's Gazette, 26th January 2024
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
Jeff King: The House of Lords, Constitutional Propriety, and the Safety of Rwanda Bill – UK Constitutional Law Association
‘The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill will receive its second reading in the House of Lords on 29 January 2024, having cleared the House of Commons unamended. There are a great many problems with the Rwanda Bill, any of which might weigh with the Lords, but this blog post focuses on just one: the likelihood that, if enacted, the Bill may well trigger a constitutional crisis between the courts and Parliament. It would be a crisis that is likely to endure beyond the life of the policy embodied in the Bill. I argue here that one of the roles of the House of Lords is to act as a constitutional safeguard, a steam-valve, and, in exercise of this function under the rare circumstances that attend this Bill, it would be legitimate for the Lords to not only make and insist upon far-reaching changes to the Bill, but even to refuse to pass it altogether. This post is not concerned with the realpolitik of whether peers would in fact vote the Bill down – though I come to the point in the conclusion. It rather seeks to refute the constitutional argument that it would be illegitimate to block or make potent amendments to it.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 26th January 2024
Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org
Indonesian fruit picker landed in debt bondage challenges Home Office – The Guardian
‘When Ismael found himself sleeping rough at York station in the late October cold he struggled to understand how an opportunity to pick berries 7,000 miles from his home had so quickly ended there.’
The Guardian, 26th January 2024
Source: www.theguardian.com
What is rule 39? UK government tells civil servants to ignore European court of human rights on Rwanda deportations – EIN Blog
‘The UK government is once again navigating legal and political hurdles over its plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. The latest debate is over the emergency bill that legally declares Rwanda a safe place to send refugees (despite the supreme court ruling the opposite).’
EIN Blog, 23rd January 2024
Source: www.ein.org.uk
Modern slavery in social care surging since visa rules eased – The Guardian
‘Modern slavery is surging in social care since ministers relaxed immigration rules to fill thousands of vacancies, with a growing wave of exploitation leading to workers being ripped off or living in squalor.’
The Guardian, 21st January 2024
Source: www.theguardian.com
Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda bill is step towards totalitarianism, top lawyer in the Lords warns – The Independent
‘A leading lawyer who sits in the Lords has warned that Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda bill is “a step toward totalitarianism”.’
The Independent, 18th January 2024
Source: www.independent.co.uk
Legislating fiction – EIN Blog
‘Members of Parliament in the UK will on 16 and 17 January 2024 debate the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, which “gives effect to the judgement of Parliament that the Republic of Rwanda is a safe country” for asylum-seekers. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in November 2023 that Rwanda was manifestly not safe as asylum seekers sent to the country would face a real risk of ill-treatment due to insufficient guarantees against refoulement. The Bill thus aims to use law to determine a factual situation for as long as the law is in force. This blog discusses the risks inherent in creating such a “legal fiction” and how the Bill could be revised to mitigate this risk, before assessing the chances of it becoming law in the currently turbulent political context.’
EIN Blog, 16th January 2024
Source: www.ein.org.uk
Sanjit Nagi: The Stranglehold of New Labour and Lord Irvine’s Rights-based Constitution – UK Constitutional Law Association
‘Last year’s Supreme Court decision in R (AAA) v Home Secretary – which found the British government’s Rwanda policy to be unlawful – has reignited broader debates about the position of a government which commands a majority in Parliament vis a vis the judiciary, the separation of powers, the extent to which legislating against judicial decisions is constitutionally proper or compatible with the rule of law, and the appropriateness of disapplying sections of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA 1998). This post does not restate or reengage with such topics; substantive attention has already been given by Tom Hickman KC, Professor Mark Elliott, Adam Tucker, Professor Sarah Singer, and Richard Ekins KC et al. Neither does it take a position on the feasibility or desirability of any specific government policy, the continued operation of HRA 1998, or membership of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Instead, this post will argue that the backlash to and disapproval of the British government’s response to R (AAA) – the introduction of the Safety of Rwanda Bill, which, amongst other measures, allows Parliament to diverge from the Supreme Court’s judgment – neatly evidences the intended effect of New Labour and Lord Derry Irvine’s HRA 1998 system and judicial reforms.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 15th January 2024
Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org
Asylum accommodation to be excluded from social housing landlords crackdown – The Guardian
‘Accommodation used to house tens of thousands of asylum seekers, often the worst in the UK when it comes to damp and mould, will be excluded from a crackdown on landlords managing social housing, the Guardian has learned.’
The Guardian, 15th January 2024
Source: www.theguardian.com
UK government admits Rwanda has ‘issues with its human rights record’ – The Guardian
‘The government has admitted that Rwanda still has “issues with its human rights record” despite claims by Rishi Sunak that it is a safe country.’
The Guardian, 11th January 2024
Source: www.theguardian.com
Court of Appeal examines procedural unfairness in EEA family permit case and holds FTT acted unfairly on remittances – EIN Blog
‘The Court of Appeal has held that the FTT had acted unfairly during the hearing of an appeal against the SSHD’s refusal of Dahir Elmi Abdi, Ubah Elmi Abdi and Mahrez Sharif Hassan’s applications for EEA family permits by failing to give them and their brother Ashkir Elmi Abdi, an EEA national on whom they claimed to be financially dependent, an opportunity to address the point on which it dismissed their appeal, i.e. the remittances demonstrating dependence did not come from him, based on a calculation showing that his declared income in the UK could not have supported the amounts he claimed to have sent, and therefore they were not financially dependent on him.’
EIN Blog, 10th January 2024
Source: www.ein.org.uk
How to lift the No Recourse to Public Funds condition – EIN Blog
‘The “No Recourse to Public Funds” Condition is imposed on grant of limited leave to remain which in effect means that the person holding that leave cannot obtain public funds. However, it is possible to ask the Home Office to lift the condition and there are special criteria to be met.’
EIN Blog, 2nd January 2024
Source: www.ein.org.uk
Cleverly says UK asylum backlog cleared as almost 100,000 wait for decision – The Guardian
‘Almost 100,000 people seeking asylum in the UK are waiting for a decision amid growing claims that ministers have massaged official figures to try to show that they have cut the backlog of cases.’
The Guardian, 2nd January 2024
Source: www.theguardian.com
High Court allows judicial review against council over failure to support child trafficking victim – Local Government Lawyer
‘The High Court has ruled that the London Borough of Barnet failed to meet its duties towards a victim of child trafficking after he received no specialist support from either the council or the Home Office for several years.’
Local Government Lawyer, 21st December 2023
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
Legal Implications of Doubling the Family Visa Income Requirement – EIN Blog
‘As many readers will be aware, part of the Home Secretary’s recently announced “five-point plan” on immigration included a significant increase to the minimum income threshold for family visas under Appendix FM of the Immigration Rules.’
EIN Blog, 12th December 2023
Source: www.ein.org.uk
‘Everything is in jeopardy’: how new UK visa rules are tearing families apart – The Guardian
‘Rebecca, 28, a full-time PhD student in biosciences from Liverpool, and her partner, an Australian national working in higher education, are among thousands of couples facing separation and financial uncertainty because of the government’s decision to overhaul immigration rules. Among those affected will be skilled workers, international students, health and care workers from overseas and their family members.’
The Guardian, 7th December 2023
Source: www.theguardian.com
Can the new Rwanda bill work and what could stop it? – BBC News
‘Expert lawyers who have been involved in the Rwanda case – or supported the challenge to the policy – have described new legislation as potentially setting up a politically explosive fight with both the Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights.’
BBC News, 6th December 2023
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Sunak’s bill aims to block UK human rights law to save Rwanda scheme – The Guardian
‘An emergency bill published on Wednesday will assert that ministers have the power to ignore judgments that come from Strasbourg while stopping short of leaving or “disapplying” the European convention on human rights.’
The Guardian, 6th October 2023
Source: www.theguardian.com
Court of Appeal finds ‘flaws at all levels’ in ECAA case – EIN Blog
‘The Court of Appeal has held that by refusing Mr Ozmen—a Turkish national—leave to remain in the UK as a businessperson pursuant to the European Community Association Agreement (or “ECAA”) between the UK and Turkey, the first instance decision-maker, the administrative reviewer and even the judge conducting a judicial review had all fallen into error in rejecting Mr Ozmen’s proposal on the basis of a superficial search resulting in wrong factual information about the viability of one potential customer. That flaw had undermined the decision-making at all levels. It was also quite irrational to reject the entire application on the basis of an analysis of evidence about the viability of one customer where the overall scheme of the evidence about four potential customers showed that there was broad demand for Mr Ozmen’s services. Mr Ozmen appealed against the dismissal of his claim for judicial review of the SSHD’s refusal to grant him leave to remain in the UK as a businessperson under the ECAA. He had arrived in the UK having been granted leave to enter as a short-term student in December 2019 and in May 2020, he applied for leave to remain here as a business person. His plan was to work as a mobile barber in and around the town of Glossop (Derbyshire) and he had submitted a detailed proposal with his application. On 15 March 2021, his application was refused and his administrative review application was unsuccessful on 7 February 2022 and he was advised to leave the country.’
EIN Blog, 5th December 2023
Source: www.ein.org.uk
