Detainees win torture claims test case – BBC News
“Hundreds of people who were tortured before seeking asylum in the UK could seek compensation and release from immigration detention.”
BBC News, 17th May 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Category: asylum
Council wrongly classed asylum seeker children as adults – The Guardian
“A London council has had to pay out more than £1m in costs for wrongly assessing asylum seeker children as adults. These wrong decisions have condemned some children to homelessness, prevented them from going to school and led to some being unlawfully held in adult detention centres.”
The Guardian, 17th May 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Ahmadi v Secretary of State for the Home Department – WLR Daily
Ahmadi v Secretary of State for the Home Department: [2013] EWCA Civ 512; [2013] WLR (D) 170
“Where a notice of immigration decision contained combined notice of both a refusal of an application for variation of leave to remain and a decision that the applicant should be removed by way of directions under section 47 of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, the removal decision was invalid.”
WLR Daily, 9th May 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
New migrants will have to wait a year for legal aid – The Guardian
“Foreign nationals are to be denied the right to obtain legal aid for civil cases until they have lived in Britain for at least a year, the justice secretary Chris Grayling will announce this week.”
The Guardian, 7th April 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘Gay? Prove it then – have you read any Oscar Wilde?’: Judges accused of asking lesbian asylum seekers inappropriate questions – The Independent
“Have you ever read Oscar Wilde? Do you use sex toys? Why have you not attended a Pride march? These are just some of the questions that have been asked of lesbian asylum seekers in what one academic says shows shocking levels of ignorance and prejudice among tribunal judges.”
The Independent, 4th April 2013
Source: www.independent.co.uk
Last week not a good one for Theresa May: not just Abu Qatada – UK Human Rights Blog
“Hot on the Home Secretary’s loss of the Abu Qatada appeal, a reverse for her in another deportation case about someone whom the Court of Appeal described as ‘an important and significant member of a group of Islamist extremists in the UK,’ and who was said to have links – direct or indirect – with men involved in the failed July 21 2005 bombing plot.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 31st March 2013
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
Tamil deportations from UK blocked by London High Court – BBC News
“The High Court in London has blocked the deportation of a group of failed Tamil asylum seekers scheduled to be sent back to Sri Lanka on Thursday.”
BBC News, 28th February 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Al-Byati: Iraqi doctor denies tribunal claims – BBC News
“An Iraqi doctor has been accused of committing crimes against humanity as part of Saddam Hussein’s regime, a medical tribunal has heard.”
BBC News, 26th February 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
UKBA backs down over use of force on children and pregnant women – The Guardian
“The government has backed down on the use of force on children and pregnant women it seeks to remove from the UK.”
The Guardian, 22nd February 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
D and another v Refugee Applications Commissioner (Ireland) and others – WLR Daily
“Article 23(3) and (4) of Council Directive 2005/85/EC of 1 December 2005 on minimum standards on procedures in member states for granting and withdrawing refugee status (OJ 2005 L326, p 13) did not preclude a member state from examining by way of prioritised or accelerated procedure, in compliance with the basic principles and guarantees set out in Chapter II of that Directive, certain categories of asylum applications defined on the basis of the criterion of the nationality or country of origin of the applicant. Article 39 did not preclude national legislation which allowed an applicant for asylum either to lodge an appeal against the decision of the determining authority before a court or tribunal such as the Refugee Appeals Tribunal (Ireland), and to bring an appeal against the decision of that tribunal before a higher court such as the High Court (Ireland), or to contest the validity of that determining authority’s decision before the High Court, the judgments of which might be the subject of an appeal to the Supreme Court (Ireland).”
WLR Daily, 31st January 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Gay asylum seekers feeling increased pressure to prove sexuality, say experts – The Guardian
“Gay asylum seekers are increasingly going to extreme lengths to meet immigration officials’ demands that they prove their sexual identity or else be returned to countries where they face persecution.”
The Guardian, 3rd February 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Regina (Bushara) v Secretary of State for the Home Department – WLR Daily
“In assessing whether an individual would be at risk on return to a member state, the fact that the receiving state was itself bound by the same Conventions and Community law as the sending state was to be regarded as obviating the risk unless there was a systemic failure in the receiving state. Unless there had been such a failure, the person was adequately protected: he had his rights against the receiving government and, if necessary, the possibility of recourse to the European Court of Human Rights from the receiving country.”
WLR Daily, 16th January 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Abed El Karem El Kott and others v Bevándorlási és Állampolgársági Hivatal (ENSZ Menekültügyi Főbiztossága intervening) (Case C-364/11) – WLR Daily
“On its proper interpretation, article 12(1)(a) of Council Directive 2004/83/EC of 29 April 2004 on minimum standards for the qualification and status of third country nationals or stateless persons as refugees or as persons who otherwise needed international protection, and the content of the protection granted, the cessation of protection or assistance from organs or agencies of the United Nations other than the High Commission for Refugees ‘for any reason’ included the situation in which a person who, after actually availing himself of such protection or assistance, had ceased to receive it for a reason beyond his control and independent of his volition. Where the competent authorities of the member state responsible for examining the application for asylum established that the condition relating to the cessation of the protection or assistance provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was satisfied, the fact that that person was ipso facto ‘entitled to the benefits of [the] Directive’ meant that that member state must recognise him as a refugee within the meaning of article 2(c) of the Directive and that person must automatically be granted refugee status, provided always that he was not caught by article 12(1)(b) or (2) and (3) of the Directive.”
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Fee remissions in the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) – Ministry of Justice
“The consultation is aimed at anyone who has an interest in immigration, asylum and nationality matters or who would be affected by the removal of legal aid for most non-detention immigration appeals when the relevant provisions of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 comes into force in April 2013.”
Ministry of Justice, 18th December 2012
Source: www.justice.gov.uk
Model charity: ‘whatever happens, we’ll carry on, but it won’t be easy’ – The Guardian
“Southampton and Winchester Visitors Group, which supports destitute refugees, may be hit by sweeping legal aid cuts.”
The Guardian, 11th December 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
M v Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Ireland and another – WLR Daily
“The co-operation requirement in the second sentence of article 4(1) of Council Directive 2004/83/EC of 29 April 2004 on minimum standards for the qualification and status of third country nationals or stateless persons as refugees or as persons who otherwise need international protection and the content of the protection granted, did not require a competent national authority to inform an applicant, whose application for refugee status had already been rejected, of its intention to refuse, and its reasons for refusing, a request for subsidiary protection before adopting such a decision in order to enable the applicant to make known his views in that regard.”
WLR Daily, 22nd December 2012
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Regina v Jaddi – WLR Daily
Regina v Jaddi [2012] WLR (D) 347
“Where the questions of whether an asylum seeker had come to the United Kingdom directly from a country where his life had been threatened after staying in Italy for a few days and whether he had made a claim for asylum as soon as reasonably practicable in the United Kingdom had not been fully investigated by immigration control after false identity documents were presented, the defence under section 31 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 should have been made available to him and the facts were for the jury to decide.”
WLR Daily, 22nd November 2012
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Independent Chief Inspector’s report on legacy casework – UK Border Agency
“Today the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, John Vine, published his report on the Handling of Legacy Asylum and Migration Cases.”
UK Border Agency, 22nd November 2012
Source: www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk
Qatada associate will stay in UK, court signals – Daily Telegraph
“An Islamic fanatic linked with Abu Qatada will stay in the UK even though the Supreme Court has ruled he should not be granted asylum.”
Daily Telegraph, 21st November 2012
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
