Asylum-Seeking Children Might Not Be Able To Reunite With Their Families After Brexit, Campaigners Warn – Rights Info

‘The Home Office is looking to end the current system which reunites asylum-seeking children with their families if a no-deal Brexit goes through.’

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Rights Info, 2nd September 2019

Source: rightsinfo.org

High Court refers law firm to SRA over “bogus claims” – Legal Futures

Posted September 3rd, 2019 in immigration, law firms, news, Solicitors Regulation Authority, standards by sally

‘The High Court has referred an immigration law firm to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) after complaining about “wholly bogus claims are advanced by firms of solicitors who are either inexpert or incompetent, or where the staff are not properly supervised”.’

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Legal Futures, 3rd September 2019

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

Investigation prompts rapid upgrades to asylum seekers’ homes – The Guardian

‘Hundreds of asylum seekers crammed into a network of “guest houses” provided by a Home Office contractor that are overrun by cockroaches, rats and mice have seen a raft of improvements in the past few days after the Guardian exposed their dire living conditions.’

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The Guardian, 27th August 2019

Source: www.theguardian.com

Home Office ad telling EU citizens how to stay in UK after Brexit banned for being ‘misleading’ – The Independent

‘A Home Office campaign informing EU nationals how to confirm their UK status after Brexit has been banned by the advertising watchdog for being “misleading”.’

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The Independent, 27th August 2019

Source: www.independent.co.uk

How will the UK immigration system cope with no deal Brexit? – Garden Court Chambers

‘UK immigration reform is imminent. The Government’s 2018 White Paper proposals for a new immigration system appear to be here to stay and a no deal Brexit looks more likely than ever.’

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Garden Court Chambers, 22nd August 2019

Source: www.gardencourtchambers.co.uk

Judge rejected asylum seeker who did not have gay ‘demeanour’ – The Guardian

Posted August 22nd, 2019 in asylum, homosexuality, immigration, judges, news by sally

‘A UK immigration judge rejected the asylum claim of a man from a country where homosexuality is illegal in part because he did not have a gay “demeanour”, a lawyer has revealed.’

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The Guardian, 21st August 2019

Source: www.theguardian.com

Woman detained unlawfully who suffered miscarriage granted £50,000 payout – Daily Telegraph

‘A woman who suffered a miscarriage while unlawfully detained has been granted a £50,000 payout from the Home Office.’

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Daily Telegraph, 19th August 2019

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Home Office outsourcing to ‘exploitative’ contractor must be reviewed, say MPs and lawyers – The Independent

‘MPs and lawyers have called for an urgent review into outsourced immigration services after it emerged Home Office profits on UK visas had surged by millions of pounds a week since visa operations were contracted to a private firm accused of exploiting applicants.’

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The Independent, 18th August 2019

Source: www.independent.co.uk

Immigration centre abuse inquiry must be held in public, court says – The Guardian

‘The Court of Appeal has rejected an application by the Home Office to conduct an inquiry into claims of systemic abuse at an immigration detention centre in private, rejecting the claims that public hearings would be prohibitively expensive.’

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The Guardian, 8th August 2019

Source: www.theguardian.com

Illegal workers retain employee rights, court confirms – OUT-LAW.com

‘Organisations can be held liable for breaching employment contracts even if their employees have been working in the country illegally, according to the Court of Appeal in London.’

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OUT-LAW.com, 2nd August 2019

Source: www.pinsentmasons.com

Robert Thomas and Joe Tomlinson: How Immigration Judicial Review Works – UK Constitutional Law Association

Posted July 31st, 2019 in human rights, immigration, judicial review, news, reports by sally

‘Two years ago on this blog, we drew attention to the immigration judicial review system—by far the most active area of judicial review litigation and the vast majority of all judicial reviews in England and Wales. In that post, we identified why there was a pressing need for further empirical exploration of the topic: not only was there a lack of understanding of litigation patterns but, on the basis of the evidence available, it seemed there was an issue of whether disputes were being channelled appropriately to judicial review (Paul Daly’s reflections on this post are available here). Since then, we have set about trying to build the evidence base that we argued was necessary to advance understanding. We collected data on the types of immigration judicial review claims and the views and experiences of people involved in the system. Our approach to the research was to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. We then combined the data gathered through these methods to inform our analysis. Our data included case-file analysis of Upper Tribunal judicial review cases and interviews with judges, representatives, users of the system, and others. We also undertook observations. Our full findings are set out in a detailed report, which we are publishing today. In this post, we provide a summary of our key conclusions.’

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UK Constitutional Law Association, 1st July 2019

Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org

Separated migrant children to access legal aid more easily – Ministry of Justice

Posted July 25th, 2019 in children, citizenship, immigration, legal aid, press releases by tracey

‘Draft legislation will bring immigration and citizenship matters into the scope of legal aid for separated migrant children.’

Full press release

Ministry of Justice, 22nd July 2019

Source: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice

Home Office used ‘confused, misleading, incomplete and unsafe’ evidence to revoke visas of tens of thousands of international students, report finds – The Independent

‘Tens of thousands of international students had their visas revoked after the Home Office used “confused, misleading, incomplete and unsafe” evidence, MPs have said. The department ignored expert advice and relied on “dodgy” evidence when it accused almost 34,000 students of cheating in English language tests in 2015, according to a new report published by the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on the Test of English for International Communication (Toeic).’

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The Independent, 18th July 2019

Source: www.independent.co.uk

Home Office accused of covering up plight of hundreds of trafficking victims wrongly detained in immigration centres – The Independent

‘The Home Office has been accused of covering up the plight of hundreds of modern slavery victims after it was forced to disclose data it previously claimed to have “no record” of.’

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The Independent, 16th July 2019

Source: www.independent.co.uk

Home Office outsourcing immigration operations ‘on the cheap’ due to funding shortages and lack of ministerial interest, says chief inspector – The Independent

Posted July 15th, 2019 in budgets, contracting out, immigration, news by tracey

‘The Home Office has been outsourcing immigration operations “on the cheap” because of funding shortages and a lack of interest from ministers, the government’s own chief inspector of borders has admitted.’

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The Independent, 15th July 2019

Source: www.independent.co.uk

Robots Over Rationality? The Use of Algorithms to Assess Visa Applications – Drystone Chambers

‘Traffic light coding has been used to determine green ‘low risk’ applications with ‘positive attributes and evidence of compliance’, amber ‘medium risk’ ‘with limited evidence or equally balanced evidence of negative and positive attributes so potential for refusal’ and red ‘high risk applications, appearing to have a greater likelihood of refusal because of the individual’s circumstances’. The coding is based on responses to a set of yes or no questions.’

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Drystone Chambers, 24th June 2019

Source: drystone.com

Anti-Islamic extremist permanently excluded from entering UK – The Guardian

Posted June 27th, 2019 in hate crime, immigration, news, proscribed organisations, terrorism by tracey

‘A prominent anti-Islamic extremist whose organisation is being investigated in Austria over links to the Christchurch shooting suspect has apparently been permanently excluded from entering the UK.’

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The Guardian, 26th July 2019

Source: www.theguardian.com

Home Office payout for trafficked man detained in mistaken identity mix-up – The Guardian

‘Vietnamese national was illegally detained for five months after Home Office refused to accept he was not someone else.’

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The Guardian, 27th July 2019

Source: www.theguardian.com

MPs and lawyers call for investigation into privatised visa system which allows firms to make millions – The Independent

Posted June 24th, 2019 in auditors, contracting out, immigration, Law Society, news, parliament, visas by tracey

‘Cross party politicians back demands for urgent review into Home Office partnership with French firm Sopra Steria following warnings legal migrants risk being ‘thrown into the hostile environment’

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The Independent, 23rd June 2019

Source: www.independent.co.uk

Investigation into abuse at Brook House IRC risks failure to meet requirements of Article 3 – UK Human Rights Blog

Posted June 21st, 2019 in detention, human rights, immigration, inquiries, news, ombudsmen by tracey

‘MA, BB v Secretary of State for the Home Department (The Equality and Human Rights Commission intervening) [2019] EWHC 1523.
The High Court has held that an effective Article 3 investigation by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (“PPO”) into allegations of serious physical and mental abuse in an Immigration Removal Centre requires the PPO to have powers are to compel witness attendance, hold hearings in public and ensure that the claimants have properly-funded representation to enable them to review and comment on witness evidence and provide lines of enquiry.’

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UK Human Rights Blog, 19th June 2019

Source: ukhumanrightsblog.com