“If you have never felt the surveilling eye and iron fist of ‘Immigration Controls’, it does not mean immigratin controls are not violent weapons; it means that your privilege enables you to circumnavigate the gleaming edge of their blade.”

Asylum Seekers Entitled to Backdated Child Tax Credits

HMRC was wrong to refuse a backdated claim for child tax credits for asylum seekers who had been granted refugee status, a judge in the Court of Session has ruled in the first successful social security test case for asylum seekers and tax credits in the UK. Although tax credits were abolished and replaced with Universal Credit on 1 February 2019, the law provided that particular groups of claimants – including asylum seekers – had preserved rights if their claim was for a period that included 31 January 2019. UK social security law preserved the right to claim child tax credits from the original date of a claim for asylum in the UK, so long as a claim was made within one month of the date of refugee status.

HMRC argued that no such claim could ever be made as it was no longer possible to claim tax credits since the roll out of Universal Credit. Lord Tyre disagreed.

Read more: Scottish Legal News, https://is.gd/ebeUhY

13-Year-Old Afghan Orphan Gets to Stay in khe UK

Giorgi Kakava moved to Scotland with his mother Sophie when he was three, after his father was killed. When his mother died three years ago, Giorgi faced being sent back but was granted temporary asylum. While he has been told he can now stay indefinitely, his grandmother has only been given 30 months leave to remain.

Giorgi, who is in second year at Springburn Academy, said he felt a "big weight" had been lifted from his shoulders, but he was sad that his grandmother still faced an uncertain future. He said: "It is good news because Glasgow is my home, I feel Scottish and if I got moved to Georgia it would be tough to cope without all my friends. "But the decision is very unfair on my nan because we are very close and I do not know what I would do if she was sent away." The family's case was taken up by Rev Brian Casey, the minister at Springburn Parish Church in Glasgow, who gathered more than 92,000 signatures via an online petition.

Read more: BBC News, https://is.gd/AAYf8v

Will Grandma be Allowed to Stay? Retained Rights of Residence for In-Laws

One of the trickier aspects of EU free movement law is “retained” rights of residence for family members if the relationship with their EEA citizen sponsor ends. A common scenario is where an EEA national marries a non-EEA national who then travels to the UK as their spouse. After a few years, the non-EEA national’s parents — the in-laws — come to the UK and are granted a residence card as Regulation 7 family members. What then happens if the marriage between sponsor and spouse fails prior to the in-laws securing permanent residence (i.e. five years)?

EU law rights of residence come to end in less than a month. But this issue is likely to arise in the immigration tribunals for a while yet, depending on when the in-laws in question were first issued with their residence cards or family permits.

Read more: Freemovement, https://is.gd/E2LIYH

Home Office Abandons Plans to Deport Osime Brown to Jamaica

A 22-year-old man who has autism and his family are celebrating after the Home Office abandoned plans to deport him to Jamaica. Osime Brown, who left Jamaica aged four to settle in the UK with his mother, Joan Martin, was facing deportation after being released from prison where he had been serving a sentence for stealing a friend’s mobile phone, though he and others said he did not do it. Martin has been fighting to halt her son’s deportation and a campaign against it had been gathering momentum, with demonstrations held in London and Glasgow at the weekend.

On Tuesday the Home Office abandoned its plans to deport him. Martin cried when she spoke to the Guardian: “We did it,” she said. “Our fight shows you should never give up. The Home Office has made the right decision to allow Osime to stay with his loving, caring family.” She expressed her gratitude to the many supporters who campaigned alongside her family to keep her son in the UK and also spoke warmly of the Home Office. “I will respond with love because we know no other way. Thank you for allowing my son to stay in his home and in the only country he has ever truly known. We are grateful. This goes to show that you can respond in a dynamic and just way. God bless you.”

Read more: Diane Taylor, Guardian, https://is.gd/w18juM

Fifty Charities Urge Home Office to Act on ‘Crisis’ in Asylum Support Payments

The Home Office has been urged to act as hundreds of asylum seekers have been unable to afford food and basic provisions after their financial support was cut off due to a botched contract transfer. A letter to home secretary Priti Patel signed by 50 refugee and asylum organisations describes the situation as “one of the worst asylum crises we have experienced” and accuses a senior Home Office official of misleading MPs this week by claiming the matter was resolved.

Thousands of asylum seekers stopped receiving their weekly subsistence payments on 24 May after their Aspen cards – a form of debit card issued to asylum seekers so they can buy basic supplies – stopped working. Single mothers with babies and young children have told The Independent they are going hungry as a result, or have had to rely on charities for basic food provision. The letter, whose signatories include the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and the Scottish Refugee Council, warns that “whole families are being left without money for food” and that charities have been “plunged into a full scale crisis trying to keep up with one emergency after another”.

Read more: May Bulman, Indpendent, https://is.gd/GjD3Hm

What is the Difference Between Refugee Status and Humanitarian Protection?

On the face of it, refugee status and humanitarian protection seem like two sides of the same coin. Both are a form of international protection granted to a person in need. Both result in a grant of five years’ permission to remain in the UK on a pathway to settlement after that. They give most of the same rights to work, study and access benefits.

But as we shall see, they are underpinned by very different legal frameworks, and refugee status is undoubtedly superior to a grant of humanitarian protection in several ways. Before we delve into the advantages of refugee status, we will take a quick look at the circumstances in which a person will be granted one or the other.

Read more: Freemovement, https://is.gd/djRSkJ

EU Settlement Scheme Rules for Zambrano Carers Unlawful

R (Akinsanya) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWHC 1535 (Admin), Mr Justice Mostyn found in no uncertain terms that Zambrano carers do not lose their EU law right to reside just because they have permission to remain granted under a route other than Appendix EU of the Immigration Rules. Up to now, the Home Office had been refusing to grant Appendix EU status to Zambrano carers who already had some kind of permission to remain (typically as a parent under Appendix FM). I would encourage anyone who has been baffled by the Home Office’s position on Zambrano carers to read the full judgment, as your bafflement will be vindicated!

If you’re not already familiar, it can be difficult to understand Zambrano carers from a standing start, but here goes. Following the landmark Zambrano judgment in 2011, the primary carer of a British citizen living in the UK derived a right to reside under EU law if their removal from the UK would compel the British citizen to leave the European Union. This benefitted, for example, single mothers from non-EU countries with a British child or children.

Read more: Freemovement, https://is.gd/9mPe1W