News & Views Monday 2nd November to Sunday 8th November 2015

Diane Abbott: Economic Migrants/Refugees Deserve Equal Sympathy

The shadow international development secretary also said it is wrong and racist to claim, as some of her colleagues in the Labour party had done previously, that eastern European immigrants were the cause of wage cuts for English workers. Abbott was speaking on Thursday at an event to welcome refugees in north London also attended by the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn. The refugee and immigration issue is likely to be controversial as Labour seeks to defeat a Ukip challenge in next month’s Oldham West byelection, triggered by the death of Michael Meacher.
She said: “I would remind you, thousands of people crossing the Sahara, risking their lives in the Mediterranean, coming over the Balkans, are also economic migrants and we do not want to fall into the error of thinking that refugees are in some sense a class of migrant more deserving of our sympathy. Just as our hearts goes out to Syrians struggling, dying, suffering and drowning, our hearts should also go out to economic migrants in Nigeria, Eritrea and north Africa, struggling, drowning and suffering. Economic migrants are not a lesser cause.”

Read more: Patrick Wintoru, Guardian, 06/11/2015


"Deport First, Appeal Later" Policy Is Lawful
R (On the Application Of Kiarie) v The SSHD [2015]:
The Court of Appeal judges ruled on 13 October 2015 that the Home Office policy of "deport first, appeal later" does not amount to an interference with the European Convention on human rights. However, the Court provided some helpful guidance on the interpretation of 94B and its interplay with Article 8 of the Convention (the right to respect for private and family life).

Two foreign national prisoners facing deportation, Kevin Kinyanjui Kiarie and Courtney Aloysius Byndloss, challenged the lawfulness of Theresa May's "deport first, appeal later" regime in the case of R (On the Application Of Kiarie) v The SSHD.

The deportation powers under challenge were introduced by the Immigration Act 2014, which introduced a new Section 94 to the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 that allows the Home Secretary to certify that appeals against deportation are fit to take place out of country when there is no "real risk of serious irreversible harm" being inflicted on the appellant.

Mr Kiarie, 21, is a Kenyan national who came to the United Kingdom at the age of 3 and Mr Byndloss is a Jamaican national who entered into this country in 2002; both were granted indefinite leave to remain. However, in October 2014, after being convicted of drug related charges, they were informed of the Secretary of State's decision to make a deportation order against them.

They each claimed that deportation would be in breach of their human rights under Article 8. However, in both cases the Secretary of State certified both appellants' human rights claims under the new section 94, focusing initially only on the question of whether removal pending an appeal would cause "serious and irreversible harm".
Read more: Gherson Extradition


Shut Down Yarl’s Wood End Immigration Detention Now

Demonstration Saturday 7th November Assemble 1:00pm

Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre, Twinwoods Business Park, Thurleigh Road, Milton Ernest,
Bedford MK44 1FD

On Saturday 7th November over 1000 people from around the country will converge at Yarl’s Wood
Immigration Detention Centre to demonstrate demanding that Yarl’s Wood is finally shut down and
calling for a complete end to the practice of immigration detention.

The brutal inhumanity displayed in the case of Alois Dvorzac1, an unwell and confused 84 year old
man, shackled while he died of heart failure is but one terrible story of the 30,000 people who get
locked up indefinitely in one of the UK’s 14 Immigration Detention Centres.

Yarl’s Wood has been condemned time and time again, most recently in the unannounced inspection
by the HM Chief Inspector of Prisons2, which concluded “Yarl’s Wood is rightly a place of national
concern”

Read more: Movement for Justice, 04/11/2015


Continuing Conflicts that Create Refugees - October 2015

Deteriorated Situations: Central African Republic, Israel/Palestine, Macedonia, Republic of Congo, South China Sea, Turkey.

As armed conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen, and elsewhere continued to inflict much suffering and instability around the world, the heads of the UN and International Committee of the Red Cross issued an unprecedented joint warning about the impact of today’s conflicts on civilians and called on states to redouble their efforts to find sustainable solutions to conflicts. Welcoming the call to action, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, President & CEO of the International Crisis Group, said: “It is imperative that the world do much more to respond to early warning signs and prevent wars breaking out in the first place”.

Other October trends saw Turkey’s republic faced with the deadliest attack in its history, and tensions and violence rising further around Jerusalem’s Holy Esplanade. Deadly communal violence prompted the Central African Republic’s transitional government to delay elections until mid-December, and a referendum in Congo-Brazzaville, held amid a crackdown on the opposition, paved the way for the president to seek a third term. In Asia, tensions between China and the U.S. rose after an American warship sailed through disputed South China Sea waters. In a positive step for world peace, Iran’s July nuclear deal was formally adopted on 18 October.

Escalating tensions at Jerusalem’s Holy Esplanade saw a surge in violence, triggered by revived Israeli limitations on Muslim entry to al-Aqsa Mosque and Palestinian stone-throwing at Israel security forces to prevent entry of religious Jews. Crisis Group is concerned that the rising violence that has spread across the rest of the West Bank and into Israel could worsen. In our June report on the Holy Esplanade we called for the status quo arrangement that has mostly kept the peace since Israel captured East Jerusalem in 1967 to be shored up to avoid a repeat of the unrest seen in mid-2014. The Jordanian-Israeli understandings mediated by the U.S. in October are a positive but partial step in that direction: they boost Jordan’s role at the site but address only the esplanade when the drivers of violence are broader, and they continue to exclude Palestinians from administering the esplanade.

A suicide bomb attack on 10 October on an Ankara peace rally in Turkey led by leftist groups and the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) was blamed on the Islamic State (IS). Killing 102 people and injuring 240, the attack fed into growing tensions between the government and Kurdish political groups ahead of the 1 November repeat elections, and underlines the increased risk of further IS-related violence. Despite the insurgent Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)’s announcement of an “inaction” immediately following the bombing, the government pledged to continue military operations against the group. In the Balkans, there was increasing concern over the fate of the July EU-brokered agreement between Macedonia’s government and opposition to resolve the country’s political crisis, after talks on implementing the deal stalled.

In Asia, South China Sea tensions increased as a U.S. navy warship sailed within twelve nautical miles of an artificial island constructed on Subi reef, claimed and held by China, on 27 October. China’s defence ministry said a missile destroyer and a patrol vessel had warned the U.S. ship to leave. Its foreign ministry said the American warship had entered its waters “illegally” (although since the reef was originally submerged at high tide it would not be entitled to a twelve-nautical mile territorial sea). On 31 October the Chinese navy released photos of Chinese armed fighter jets training in the South China Sea.

In Africa, a number of countries witnessed election-related tensions and violence. In Congo-Brazzaville, the population overwhelmingly voted for a constitutional amendment to eliminate the two-term presidential limit, paving the way for President Nguesso to seek a third term. The move followed a violent crackdown on the opposition, and triggered a series of protests in late October. Meanwhile, the situation deteriorated in the Central African Republic where deadly communal violence left dozens dead in Bangui in September and October, and prompted the transitional government of transition President Samba-Panza to delay presidential and parliamentary elections until mid-December. In Crisis Group’s commentary “Avoiding an Electoral Flare-up”, we warned that armed groups were assembling and attempting to march on the capital, Bangui, to provoke violent confrontations, and we called for the elections to be held in 2016 so as to allow disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration processes to take place.

With its gruelling review in Tehran and Washington completed, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program was formally approved by all sides on 18 October. As such, July’s historic agreement became effective and the participants – the P5+1/EU3+3 and Iran – began implementing their commitments under the deal.

Improved Situations: Iran

Conflict Risk Alert November: Turkey

Download the full report here . . . .



 

Early Day Motion 650: Torture, Executions and Punishments in Iran

That this House is alarmed by the continuing steep rise in executions during Hassan Rouhani's presidential tenure in Iran over the last two years; notes the widespread sentencing of degrading and inhumane medieval judicial punishments, including public hangings and floggings, prisoners being paraded in streets, torture, limb amputations and eye gouging; recalls that the UN General Assembly recently criticised the Iranian regime's continued use of such practices, with its Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon stating that despite promises made, greater freedom for the country had not resulted in any major improvements in human rights; and calls on the Government to urge the international community to demand an end to such deplorable practices forthwith.
House of Commons: 05/11/2015


UKHO CIG - Yemen: Security and Humanitarian Situation

1.1 Basis of Claim

1.1.1. That the general humanitarian situation in Yemen is so severe as to make removal a breach of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR); and/or

1.1.2. That the security situation in Yemen presents a real risk which threatens life or person such that removal would be in breach of Article 15(c) of European Council Directive 2004/83/EC of 29 April 2004 ('the Qualification Directive').

Updated 3 November 2015

Published on Refworld, 05/11/2015

http://www.refworld.org/docid/563b19ba4.html


Asylum Research Consultancy COI Update Volume 112
This document provides an update of Country Guidance case law and UKBA publications and developments in refugee producing countries between 2nd November 2015 - Volume 112 here . . . .


IRC Where Elderly Canadian Died In Shackles 'Too Dangerous'

A doctor who examined the 84-year-old Canadian who died in shackles after being refused entry to the UK has described the detention centre where he was being held as “too dangerous” and has told the Guardian she tried to alert authorities to his plight days before his death.
Farrah Jarral, who treated Alois Dvorzac before his death in February 2013, told the Guardian that Harmondsworth detention centre near Heathrow airport was “like a prison” and that the environment could easily be the cause of mental health problems for detainees.
Guardian, 31/10/2015


Khaleseh v Home Office [2015] EWHC 2995 (QB) (23 October 2015)

(Had Miss Nicholls felt that the information in the Rule 35 report was insufficient she could have requested more information. She did not do so )

1. This is the Claimant's claim for damages for false imprisonment arising out of his detention by the Defendant at Dover Immigration Removal Centre ("IRC") between 27th November 2013 and 20th February 2014. The matter is listed for trial of liability only. If necessary, quantum will be dealt with at a later hearing.

2. The Claimant originally also pursued a claim in respect of his period of detention between 14th November 2013 and 27th November 2013, but that part of the claim has been abandoned.

Conclusion:

59. On these bases I conclude that the Claimant's case succeeds. I find that the decision was reached in breach of the Defendant's own policy. This amounts to a public law error. The Claimant's detention was unlawful. It was unlawful from the date on which the decision was made, namely, 27th November 2013. The decision-maker should have concluded that there was independent evidence of torture. She should then have gone on to consider in light of the guidance whether there were very exceptional circumstances in the Claimant's case such as would override the presumption that a victim of torture should not be detained. The Defendant concedes that there are no such very exceptional circumstances. Miss Nicholls did not identify any. Mr Pulham was unable to identify any. These two points are at the heart of the case and I find them in the Claimant's favour.

60. Although I was urged on behalf of the Defendant to find that the decision was a reasonable one I can see no basis for doing so.

61. Although Miss Nicholls refers to the fact that the Claimant is to be removed to Italy there is no suggestion in the letter that she was acting on the "unpublished guidance" identified by Mr Pulham. It does not seem to me that as far as the Claimant is concerned that issue forms any part of my decision.

62. At paragraph 35 of the Defendant's skeleton argument Dr Tippu's use of the words "might be consistent with" is referred to and an argument raised that the use of those words are important because they denote nothing more than that the scars might have been caused by the trauma described, but it is non-specific and there are many other possible causes. Dr Tippu does not say that there are many other possible causes. The Defendant's own example (no. 4) in the process document referred to above is almost on all fours with this wording and the guidance there suggests that this would amount to independent evidence of torture. In any event it does not seem to form any part of Miss Nicholls' decision and therefore is not a matter which falls to be considered at all as I find.

63. Had Miss Nicholls felt that the information in the Rule 35 report was insufficient she could have requested more information. She did not do so and she does not say that she felt that she needed to. It does not seem to me that this point arises. As referred to in the case of EO the question as to whether or not there is independent evidence of torture "is in reality fairly hard-edged". In my view this report not only does amount to independent evidence of torture, but clearly does so and with sufficient information.

64. It is clear that the public law errors I have referred to were directly relevant to the decision to detain. The decision to detain was made on the basis of the matters set out in Miss Nicholls' letter.

65. In the circumstances there will be judgment for the Claimant on the issue of liability in this case.

Published on Refworld, 02/11/2015

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2015/2995.html


Immigration Rules Main Changes

Asylum

· Making asylum claims from EU nationals invalid, unless exceptional circumstances apply

· Clarifying the circumstances in which refugee status will be withdrawn

Settlement

· Ensuring indefinite leave and naturalisation applicants, who normally rely on an English language qualification, take a secure English language test

· The introduction of the £35k minimum earnings threshold for Tier 2 settlement, which will come into force on 6 April 2016

Family/private life

· Providing that a child's application for entry clearance will be refused where the Secretary of State considers that the sponsor or the sponsor's partner poses a risk to the child

Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) of the points-based system

· amending the endorsement criteria used by Tech City UK, to better reflect the skills and experience of target applicants who are most likely to add value to the UK digital technology sector

Tiers 2 and 5 of the points-based system

· adding nurses and four digital technology jobs to the Tier 2 shortage occupation list

· changes to clarify the charity worker rules for sponsors and applicants.

· Setting the annual allocation of places available under the youth mobility scheme for 2016

· minor amendments to the list of government authorised exchange schemes

· Statement of changes to the Immigration Rules: HC535, 29 October 2015


Last updated 6 November, 2015