All Articles: Asylum
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Simple Archive View
Are refugees obliged to claim asylum in the first safe country they reach?
There has been considerable fuss made in the last week about a handful of refugees crossing the English Channel to claim asylum here in the UK. Here I'm going to look at the numbers, the wider context, what we know about refugee decision making ...
2nd January 2019 By Colin Yeo
Fast Track asylum appeals under an unlawful system were not necessarily unfair
The Court of Appeal has ruled that appeal decisions made using the 2005 Fast Track Rules are not necessarily unfair and unlawful, even though the procedural rules generated an inevitable risk of unfairness in a significant number of cases. This means ...
20th December 2018 By Alexander Schymyck
Home Office allowed to withdraw concession in another pro-government appeal ruling
AM (Iran) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA Civ 2706 demonstrates the Court of Appeal's increasing tendency to find any reason to reject the appeals of foreign criminals. AM is an individual deserving of no sympathy. He has be ...
13th December 2018 By Christopher Cole
Points Based System
New statement of changes to the Immigration Rules: HC 1779
A statement of changes to the Immigration Rules was published today, 11 December 2018. The main changes are to introduce the pilot scheme for short-term agricultural workers that was announced earlier this year, and to expand the domestic violence set ...
11th December 2018 By Nath Gbikpi
Briefing: how lawyers can help young people in the asylum system
Claiming asylum can be a traumatic experience. Having to relive the worst events in your life while you undergo a series of interviews and hearings is bad enough. It is even worse when Home Office officials are highly sceptical about a young person' ...
10th December 2018 By David Neale
Comment: refugee families suffering domestic violence must get equal treatment
A v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2016] CSIH 38 is an important 2016 decision from the Court of Session in Scotland, the full impact of which has still to be felt. It concerns the Immigration Rules, as they apply to spouses of refugees ...
23rd November 2018 By Frank Jarvis
Major court win for trafficking victims as subsistence payment cut is reversed
In a robust judgment yesterday, the High Court found the decision of the Home Office to cut weekly benefits to asylum-seeking victims of trafficking was unlawful. The rate was previously set at £65 per week and was dramatically cut by 42% from 1 Ma ...
9th November 2018 By Bilaal Shabbir
Refugee "safe return reviews" needlessly causing anxiety, statistics suggest
About 18 months ago, the Home Office announced that refugees would no longer get indefinite leave to remain automatically after being in the UK for five years. Officials are now supposed to review whether the refugee still needs the protection of the ...
23rd October 2018 By Colin Yeo
Home Office CAN speak to your persecutor without asking you
So says the Upper Tribunal in PA (Protection claim, Respondent's enquiries, Bias) [2018] UKUT 337 (IAC); at least if your confidentiality is preserved. Officials checked Bangladeshi police records for evidence of persecution PA, a Bangladeshi na ...
22nd October 2018 By Nicholas Webb
Court of Appeal says statelessness must be proved on balance of probabilities
In AS (Guinea) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA Civ 2234, the Court of Appeal has in effect rebuffed an attempt by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to make it easier to establish statelessness. The court ruled that the sta ...
19th October 2018 By Alexander Schymyck
A new statement of changes to the Immigration Rules was laid on 10 October 2018. There is some very welcome news, including more flexibility given to caseworkers on whether and when they can write to applicants to ask for missing documents. (Whether ...
12th October 2018 By Nath Gbikpi
Help Refugees judgment: too little, too late for Calais children?
This is the second of two Court of Appeal cases this year about whether the Home Office behaved unlawfully towards vulnerable child asylum seekers during and after the demolition of the Calais refugee camp in 2016. The first appeal, R (Citizens UK) v ...
5th October 2018 By Alexander Schymyck
Losing subsidiary protection because of "serious crime"
In C-369/17 Ahmed, the Court of Justice of the European Union has held that member states must take account of all the circumstances of the crime committed by an individual before deciding that it is a "serious crime" which justifies exclu ...
19th September 2018 By Alexander Schymyck
Stateless refugee family win right to have claims decided in UK
The UK authorities do not emerge with much humanitarian credit from this newly reported tribunal case. For years the government has strenuously resisted the obviously meritorious and compassionate request by a stateless refugee family to be reunited.� ...
18th September 2018 By Colin Yeo
Fellow church-goers can give "expert evidence" on an asylum seeker's conversion to Christianity
TF and MA v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] CSIH 58 is a recent Court of Session (Inner House) decision which addresses two key themes within the immigration and asylum sphere. Firstly, the extent to which adverse credibility finding ...
6th September 2018 By Darren Cox
Comment: the Home Office must adopt a principled approach to DNA testing
In 1985, immigration solicitor Sheona York read an article in the Guardian about a new technology for proving someone's identity. She called the inventor, Professor Alec Jeffreys, at the University of Leicester to see whether this "DNA tes ...
3rd September 2018 By Colin Yeo
How to claim asylum in the UK
Claiming asylum is an important human right backed by the United Nations Refugee Convention and recognised by countries around the world. In order to make this right a reality in practice, countries like the UK have set up systems by which people must ...
29th August 2018 By Nath Gbikpi
Interesting Court of Justice case on religious belief asylum claims
Home Office overruled on whether Calais child brother of UK sponsor
Victim of "truly atrocious" past persecution can still be returned if country conditions change
Upper Tribunal told to stop interfering with perfectly good appeal decisions
Vulnerable asylum seekers face Article 3 breaches in Italy, holds tribunal
Bristol Refugee Rights needs your help
Report plays down ill-treatment of non-Arab Sudanese in Khartoum
Immigration inspector: government not serious about improving asylum decisions
Red Cross: universal credit will leave recognised refugees destitute
Asylum Aid releases new film for asylum appellants
Court of Justice says no real time limit for Dublin III re-examinations
Burden of proof rests with appellants in Article 3 appeals
Home Office "too accepting" of dire asylum accommodation, immigration inspector finds
Immigration Rules on humanitarian protection conflict with EU law
Court of Appeal says no conflict between old Afghan country guidance and Strasbourg case law
New asylum policy on non-Dublin third country cases
Strasbourg litigants not a "particular social group" under the Refugee Convention
Home Office suffers another legal reverse over treatment of refugee children
Free Asylum Aid video resources
Delay of 21 months in child refugee case found unlawful
British immigration lawyers launch crowdfunding campaign to support Athens refugee clinic
Refugee children to be granted "Calais leave"
Fixing refugee family reunion system not a Home Office priority, inspector says