Approach to Asylum ‘Untenable’ as Backlog of Cases Left In Limbo Builds Up Fast
The Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI), which is the official public watchdog scrutinising UK aid spending, said yesterday that the Government's approach to asylum following the enactment of the Illegal Migration Act 2023 is untenable both from a humanitarian perspective and from a financial one. It warned that a new backlog of cases of asylum seekers left in limbo is building up fast.
In last year's report, the ICAI found that almost a third of the UK's overseas aid budget was now being spent on asylum seekers and refugees in the UK, with most of it used to pay for hotel accommodation.
The ICAI says the biggest uncertainty regarding how large the Home Office's in-donor refugee costs will be in the future is the Illegal Migration Act (IMA) and when, or if, it will be fully enacted. This uncertainty also means that asylum seekers are being left in an 'untenable' state of limbo since the IMA became law.
Read more: EIN, https://shorturl.at/nszDM
European Court Rules Human Rights Violated By Climate Inaction
A group of older Swiss women have won the first ever climate case victory in the European Court of Human Rights. The women, mostly in their 70s, said that their age and gender made them particularly vulnerable to the effects of heatwaves linked to climate change. The court said Switzerland's efforts to meet its emission reduction targets had been woefully inadequate.
It is the first time the powerful court has ruled on global warming. The ruling is binding and can trickle down to influence the law in 46 countries in Europe including the UK.
The Swiss women, called KlimaSeniorinnen or Senior Women for Climate Protection, argued that they cannot leave their homes and suffer health attacks during heatwaves in Switzerland. On Tuesday data showed that last month was the world's warmest March on record, meaning the temperature records have broken ten months in a row.
The court dismissed two other cases brought by six Portuguese young people and a former French mayor. Both argued that European governments had failed to tackle climate change quickly enough, violating their rights.
Member of the KlimaSeniorinnen Elisabeth Smart, 76, told BBC News that she has seen how the climate in Switzerland has changed since she was a child growing up on a farm.
Read more: Georgina Rannard, BBC News, https://shorturl.at/lpyU6
Continuing Conflicts That Create Refugees - April 2024
Deteriorated Situations
Afghanistan / Pakistan / South China Sea / Venezuela / Haiti / Somalia / Bosnia And Herzegovina / Russia (Internal) / Israel/Palestine
Violence escalated in Haiti after the country’s two largest gang coalitions launched coordinated attacks across the capital Port-au-Prince to deter an international security mission from deploying. Gangs targeted critical sites, freed over 4,700 inmates and forced tens of thousands to flee.
Electoral authorities in Venezuela blocked the opposition coalition from registering their banned candidate María Corina Machado or her replacement, in an apparent bid to strengthen President Maduro’s hand in the lead-up to July elections.
Political tensions rose in Somalia, where the government of Puntland state suspended its recognition of the Mogadishu-based federal government over a review of the constitution, one of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s priorities.
Pakistan launched its first acknowledged airstrikes in Afghanistan since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021 in response to a deadly militant attack on an army post in a border district. The Taliban retaliated with cross-border fire, underscoring the risk of armed conflict between the two sides.
Strained relations between China and the Philippines soured further over maritime incidents in the South China Sea.
Conflict Risk Alerts
Bosnia And Herzegovina - Israel/Palestine - Lebanon
Resolution Opportunities
None
Improved Situations
Papua New Guinea / Somaliland Senegal
Source: Crisis Group, https://shorturl.at/abJMR
Guidance on the Deportation of EU Nationals for Pre-Brexit Conduct
If a European national receives a criminal conviction arising from conduct which took place before the Brexit cut-off date, how can they rely on those previous EU rules in an appeal against deportation?
The question is important because of the very large difference in the protections afforded by the previous EU law regime, and the deportation framework generally applicable in cases involving the deportation of a foreign national.
The Upper Tribunal has provided guidance on this complex question in Abdullah & Ors (EEA, deportation appeals, procedure) [2024] UKUT 66 (IAC), involving a morass of saved European law, other domestic legislation and the Withdrawal Agreement.
Read more: Freemovment, https://is.gd/lp9nmf
Institute of Race Relations - Calendar of Racism and Resistance /19 March – 2 April
Each of the headings below carry more incisive comment on web page
Culture / Media| / Sport
Asylum / Migration / Borders / Citizenship
Borders and Internal Controls
Reception and detention
Deportations
Citizenship
Electoral Politics| Government Policy
Anti-Fascism and the Far Right
Policing / Prisons / Criminal Justice System
Human Rights and Discrimination
Education
Housing / Poverty / Welfare
Employment / Exploitation / Industrial Action
Racial Violence and Harassment
Source: IRR, https://shorturl.at/fuGJT
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Number of Asylum Seekers Left Homeless After Home Office Eviction Soars
Exclusive: Data reveals 239% rise among those evicted from assigned accommodation, including hotels, in two years
There has been a 239% increase in homelessness among asylum seekers evicted from Home Office accommodation including hotels in two years, according to a report. Data analysed by the Refugee Council found that 12,630 households in England faced homelessness after eviction from asylum accommodation in the two years to the end of September 2023.
When the Home Office has finished processing asylum seekers’ claims they are evicted from its accommodation. Many are granted refugee status. The report, finds that 970 newly granted refugees were facing homelessness in the last quarter of 2021, but the figure for the third quarter of 2023 had jumped to 3,290 households. Many of the households include children. The report states that the rise in homelessness among newly granted refugees is unprecedented and represents “a moment of significant crisis”.
Read more: Diane Taylor, Guardian, https://shorturl.at/mvDOX
There is No Stopping People Seeking Asylum
Over the weekend Friday 24th to Sunday 31st March, the number of people who have crossed the Channel to the UK by small boat reached 5,435. This is a 43% increase from the same time last year. Although all of these arrivals would be blocked from the asylum system if and when the duty to remove in the Illegal Migration Act 2023 is brought into force without amendment, this is not acting as any sort of deterrent. Nor will the Rwanda Bill deter arrivals once it passes and even if a flight does take off, so things continue to look tricky for the government on this front.
Apparently the government can’t figure out what it wants to do with the Illegal Migration Act, this is unsurprising given it has always been difficult to see how it would work in practice. This seems to make it more likely that once the Rwanda Bill passes the Home Office will be using that and the existing laws to try to effect removal, rather than the Illegal Migration Act. But who really knows, not even the Home Office it seems. There have been reports that some people have had their notice of intent for Rwanda withdrawn, and a new one issued without a named destination. For now we remain stuck with rumours and uncertainty.
In the meantime, inadmissibility judicial review challenges are going in, some conceded at pre action stage. These challenges will continue until the government explains what they intend to do with the tens of thousands of people who are in the inadmissibility process with nowhere they can all possibly be sent.
Source: Freemovement, https://freemovement.org.uk
Shocking’ Increase in Children Denied Aid in Conflicts
Painting a grim landscape of the world’s war zones, Virginia Gamba, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, briefed ambassadors, citing grave concerns, from war-torn Gaza to gang-ravaged Haiti, where famine looms amid rampant violence and displacement. Denying aid access has long-lasting effects on children’s wellbeing and development, she said.
“Let me be very clear,” she said. “The Geneva Conventions and the Convention on the Rights of the Child contain key provisions requiring the facilitation of humanitarian relief to children in need. The denial of humanitarian access to children and attacks against humanitarian workers assisting children are also prohibited under international humanitarian law.”
The UN’s engagement with combatants to end and prevent violations against children is critical, she said. Unfortunately, data gathered for her forthcoming 2024 report shows “we are on target to witness a shocking increase of the incidents of the denial of humanitarian access globally,” she said, adding that “the blatant disregard for international humanitarian law continues to increase.”Read more: United Nations, https://shorturl.at/glp25
Procedural Fairness Requires Reasons to be Given in Afghan Resettlement Refusals
The Court of Appeal has told the Ministry of Defence that they must reconsider whether an Afghan former Supreme Court judge is eligible for resettlement to the UK under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP). This was following an unsuccessful appeal by the Home Secretary and the Defence Secretary in R (LND1 & Ors) v Secretary of State for the Home Department & Anor [2024] EWCA Civ 278.
The first respondent, LND, held various judicial and other roles in Afghanistan between 2008 and August 2021 when the Taliban took over. This included being a judge at the Supreme Court of Afghanistan where he was the Director General of the Directorate of Investigation and Studies and was involved in the Counter Narcotics Justice Centre, which was funded by the UK.
Read more: Freemovment, https://is.gd/MOEBo9
Briefing: How to Make a Change of Conditions Application and Remove the ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ Restriction
This article explains how to make a successful change of conditions application where a person needs to lift the no recourse to public funds restriction (NRPF) from their grant of leave. This article is written for applicants as well as for the lawyers and advisors who may be assisting in more complex cases.
The NRPF condition can be removed from a grant of leave via a change of conditions application. The application is free to make but can be complex.
The policy has been amended numerous times over the past five years as a result of litigation and the criteria by which people can apply has broadened significantly. It is very important that advisors and Home Office decision-makers alike are open to broad and flexible interpretations of the criteria and are careful not to rely on or think in terms of the previous criteria.
Read more: Freemovment, https://is.gd/WMkAkq
Immigration Regulator: There’s Not Enough Immigration Lawyers
The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) has published its annual report for the year 2022/23. One of the key points made is that the number of new immigration advisers is said to be rising, but not rapidly enough to meet even-faster rising demand for immigration law advice. This shortfall is said to create a risk of unregulated, illegal, poor quality and sometimes exploitative advice filling the vacuum.
But it actually looks like the total number of immigration advisers is falling when we compare the new figures to last year. Presumably that is because more lawyers are leaving the sector than are joining it. Or, to put it another way, experienced and established lawyers are leaving and being replaced by newbies.
Last year there were 3,626 regulated individual advisers and 1,838 organisations. This year there are 3,326 individual advisers and 1,921 organisations. The number of immigration advisers actually seems to have fallen. So too has the amount the OISC collects in registration fees: £1,120m last year and £1,039m this year. Perhaps that partly explains the consultation on major fee increases.
Read more: Freemovment, https://is.gd/vtPVOP
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