News
Senior home office officials will be questioned this week by the home affairs select committee over allegations that women inside Yarl's Wood immigration detention centre were assaulted by staff using riot shields. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/28/yarls-wood-assaults
The Quarterly statistics covering immigration and asylum were published by the home office last week. Figures show that applications for asylum have dropped in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 4,765 - a 30 per cent fall compared to the same quarter in 2008, and the lowest level since the second quarter of 1992. http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration-asylum-stats.html
The UK Border Agency has announced the following changes to student Tier 4 visa applications with effect from the 3rd March. The minimum level of English language course required has been raised to level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Those coming to study below degree level, will only be able to work 10 hours a week and their dependants will be excluded from working all together. Finally, students studying for a course under Tier 4 for 6 months or less, will no longer be able to bring their dependants. http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/en/aboutus/newsroom/?view=News&id=21806740
Cases
The European Court of Justice in the cases of Teixeira v London Borough of Lambeth C 480/08 and London Borough of Harrow v Ibrahim C 310/08 has found that a right of residence in a Member State of the parent who is the primary carer of a child exercising the right to pursue his or her education, is not conditional on either the parent having sufficient resources not to become a burden on the social assistance system of that Member State or having comprehensive sickness insurance or the parent having worked as a migrant worker in that Member State on the date on which the child started in education.http://curia.europa.eu/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl
In the Court of Appeal in WL (Congo) 1 and 2 & Anor, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2010] EWCA Civ 111, Stanley Burnton LJ found that Sch.3 para.2 of the 1971 Act did not prohibit of rebuttable presumption in favour of detention for foreign national prisoners. http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2010/111.html
Courses and events
The Haldane Society has two events in March. On Wednesday the 10th: "Binyam Mohammed and the application of commercial law principles to the human rights context". Speaker: Jamie Beagant, solicitor at Leigh Day & Co and lawyer for Binyam Mohammed. On Thursday the 18th: Clive Stafford-Smith, Director of Reprieve.
http://www.haldane.org/
