| This week is Refugee Week 2022 and we’ve got a load of refugee law and asylum content lined up for publication. We’ve started with an updated post on the legal definition of a refugee. We’ll be updating our asylum system briefing as well and publishing some new content: keep your eyes peeled. We share our thoughts on the failed removal flight to Rwanda following tireless work by immigration lawyers from the Court of Appeal to Strasbourg. The Court of Appeal also concluded that public interest in deportations based on foreign and domestic criminal offences remains the same. Issues around Afghan citizens were in the news, both through the High Court decision that the Home Office must consider visa applications by Afghan judges and the launching of the long-awaited Afghan Citizenship Resettlement Scheme.  As part of Refugee Week, Colin’s book on refugee law is half price at publishers Bristol University Press. You can pick it up for £14.49 plus postage until the end of the week.Buy now: half price this week!ON THE BLOGWhat is the legal definition of a “refugee”? By Colin Yeo  This week is Refugee Week. On Free Movement we try to communicate complex legal issues in immigration and asylum law in a clear way. Here we answer the question “what is a refugee?” We answer the question from a lawyer’s point of view. We are lawyers, after all. But lawyers do not own the word “refugee”. The term has been in use since the eighteenth century and has its own evocative, wider meaning in the public consciousness. Those fleeing Ukraine or relocating to the United Kingdom from Hong Kong can validly be referred to as “refugees”, for example, even if they are not formally recognised as refugees, might not even… Afghan resettlement schemes belatedly due to launch By Sarah Pinder  Whilst many of us were focused on the Rwanda flight, injunction applications and subsequent appeals, the government on 13 June 2022 made some further announcements about the long-delayed Afghan Citizenship Resettlement Scheme. The glacial pace of progress for the Afghan schemes might be contrasted by a cynic with the rapid progress of the Rwanda deal. You can read the two new updates here: the first relates to ACRS in general and is an update to the page initially published on 6 January 2022 when the scheme was officially ‘opened’ and the second provides more information on Pathway 3 with its own ‘launch’ due on Monday 20 June 2022. As far… Supreme Court allows foreign criminal deportation case By Colin Yeo  The Supreme Court has allowed the appeal against the deportation of a Jamaican man who arrived in the UK aged 10. The case is SC (Jamaica) v Secretary of State of the Home Department [2022] UKSC 15. The judgment covers the application of the concept of internal relocation to risk of breaches of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the proper approach to the statutory deportation rules on Article 8 private and family life introduced by the Immigration Act 2014. SC had a very troubled and difficult upbringing. His mother experienced persecution in Jamaica as a lesbian woman and SC suffered alongside her. She fled to the… Home Office must consider Afghan judges’ visa applications By Sarah Pinder  The High Court has provided a glimmer of hope for some Afghan citizens seeking urgent relocation to the UK through applications for leave outside the Immigration Rules. The case is R (S & Anor) v Secretary of State for the Home Department & Ors [2022] EWHC 1402 (Admin). The claimants were judges in Afghanistan prior to the Taliban taking over in August 2021. It was not in dispute, as Mrs Justice Lang noted, that they are at risk of serious harm or death at the hands of the Taliban. Their judicial review claims challenged the government’s decision to reject their applications for permission to enter the United Kingdom without even… The Rwanda flight is a moment of national shame By Colin Yeo  A few poor souls are bound for removal to Rwanda today. Whether or not the flight departs on schedule, this is a moment of national shame. One of the richest countries in the world, hosting one of the lowest numbers of refugees internationally, has paid a developing country to take a handful of genuine refugees off our hands. The government simultaneously argues that Rwanda is a beacon of human rights and economic prosperity and that removing a few refugees there will be so awful for them that it will deter others from following in their footsteps. It is a classic example of Johnsonian “cakeism”, of having it both ways. The… Foreign convictions in deportation appeals By Iain Halliday  When the Home Office is deporting someone for being convicted of a criminal offence, does it matter what country that conviction is from? In practice, probably not. This seems to be the effect of the Court of Appeal’s decision in Gosturani v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWCA Civ 779. This is because the public interest in deportation remains the same, regardless of whether the conviction is from the UK or abroad. When is a foreign criminal not a foreign criminal? The definitions of “foreign criminal” in section 32 of the UK Borders Act 2007 and Part 5A of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002… Court of Appeal rejects Rwanda injunction appeal: judgment transcript By Free Movement  Below is an unofficial partial transcript of the Court of Appeal’s judgment refusing interim relief (an injunction) in the case of Public and Commercial Services Union and Others v Secretary of State for the Home Department. This was one of two cases heard and decided today which sought to pause the removal of refugees to Rwanda pending full legal arguments on the legality of that policy. In the last few minutes, an injunction in the second case, Asylum Aid in the High Court before Mr Justice Swift, has reportedly been refused. So those seeking to resist removal on tomorrow’s flight will need to rely on the outcome of urgent individual challenges…. What we’re reading this week By Phoebe Warren  A compilation of top content on UK immigration law and policy, updated weekly. Good morning from the Court of Appeal where the challenge to the Home Office’s asylum seekers removal flight to Rwanda is beginning – @BBCDomC on Twitter, 13 June Transport department denies UK mulling visas for EU workers to ease airport woes – Reuters, 11 June Q&A: The UK’s policy to send asylum seekers to Rwanda – Migration Observatory, 10 June Asylum seekers resettled in Rwanda under EU scheme abandoned to poverty – Telegraph, 10 June UNHCR Analysis of the Legality and Appropriateness of the Transfer of Asylum-Seekers under the UK-Rwanda arrangement – UN Refugee Agency, 8 June Last night the House of Lords… WHAT WE’RE READING: Passport Office told to ask people for £100 to fast-track applications, leaked memo reveals – iNews (£), Migrant care workers came to help the UK. Now they’re trapped in debt bondage Migrants: Some due for removal from the UK could be electronically tagged Updated heat maps and graphs showing the number of applications, visa grants and arrivals under the ‘Homes for Ukraine’ scheme now available at andyhewett.com/ukraine All migrant victims of domestic abuse and violence must be protected, says Lords committee – UK Parliament International Agreements Committee, Citizenship fee waiver & exemption effective from today. Looked after children are now exempted from the fee. Children who cannot afford £1,012 fee to be registered as British citizens can now apply for a waiver… Morale and trust among Home Office staff at ‘rock bottom’ after failed Rwanda flight Further requests for interim measures in cases concerning asylum-seekers’ imminent removal from the UK to Rwanda – European Court of Human Rights, CJEU confirms UK citizens lost EU citizenship as consequence of Brexit |
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