Issue 27 - 11th September 2006

Monday 11 September 2006

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News

Thirty-two Iraqis were forcibly removed on 5 September despite concerns that they will face persecution upon their return. They were flown on military aircraft, which left an RAF base in the UK and headed for Kurdish-held Northern Iraq. Home Secretary, John Reid had already stated that he would ignore any applications for judicial review and only those whose applications had been accepted by the courts would be removed from the flight. The Refugee Legal Centre persuaded a High Court judge to grant five out of six of their applications for an injunction but another five were put on the flight in their place. Forty Iraqis had been detained the week before, in anticipation that if some would be granted injunctions, other detainees would be put in their stead to ensure the flight was full.
Read more

Antonio Guterres, the head of UNHCR, has warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in the Sudanese province of Darfur if the security situation does not improve. Read more

The Home Office has released asylum statistics for 2005 including statistics on applications for unaccompanied minors and age disputed cases. Find out more

The latest asylum statistics for the second quarter of 2006 recently released by the government showed that 23% of appeals were successful. Read more

The Home Office has put information online regarding Certificates of Approval (COA) for marriage or civil partnership applicationsIn order to comply with the High Court judgements, the Home Office has revised the guidance for considering Certificate of Approval applications and, with immediate effect, will resume consideration of suspended applications. This guidance is interim guidance, pending the outcome of the appeal and may be changed in light of the Judgment of the Court of Appeal. Applications from individuals who previously did not meet the criteria for a Certificate of Approval but who have valid leave to enter or remain at the time of their application will now be considered in line with revised guidance. Applications from those individuals who do not have valid leave to enter or remain will continue to be refused unless there are exceptional compassionate circumstances for granting a Certificate of Approval. Applicants who were previously refused and had valid leave at the time of their application can submit a request for reconsideration of their application. These requests will be considered in accordance with the revised guidance. Read more

Note the following announcements from UK Visas:

(i) Reopening of visa section in Lebanon (08/09/06)

The visa section of the British Embassy, Beirut will resume normal opening hours of 08.30-12.00 Monday - Friday on Tuesday 12 September.

(ii) Working Holidaymaker applications in Namibia and Botswana (06/09/06)

UKvisas announced that from 4 September 2006 they are accepting applications for working holidaymaker visas in Namibia and Botswana. The scheme had previously been suspended for operational reasons.

(iii) Online visa applications available in Romania (01/09/06)

The British Embassy in Romania now accepts visa applications online for UK visas.

In case You Missed this...

Fair, Effective Trusted and Transparent

  • In case you missed the Annex of 'Summary Milestones'. Under the objective 'Boost Britains's economy the milestones are
  • For points based system - Highly skilled tier by April 2008; skilled worker, student, youth mobility and temporary worker tiers by April 2009.
  • For Migration Advisory Committee - operating by April 2008
  • For 'trusted traveller scheme' - in operation for 40,000 customers by December 2006.
  • For language skills - required by April 2007.
  • For more stringent checks for travellers from high-risk countries - by April 2008. For routes as well as countries by April 2009.

To Watch for...

The first, comprehensive global study conducted by the United Nations on all forms of violence against children would be presented by the Independent Expert Paulo Sergio Pinheiro to the General Assembly's Third Committee in the afternoon of 11 October 2006, Ms. Connors said. It provided information on the hidden, unreported and under-recorded aspects of this global problem, including the incidence of various types of violence against children within the family, schools, alternative care institutions and detention facilities, places where children worked and communities. It proposed recommendations to prevent and respond to this issue. read more

R (RUDI) v SSHD (CO/2900/2005)
Rudi challenges the exclusion from the family amnesty of unaccompanied children who claimed asylum before 2 October 2000. The substantive hearing in the Administrative Court is listed on 5 October 2006.

Legislation

The Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 (Commencement No. 2) Order 2006 brings into effect numerous new provisions from the latest immigration statute, including changes to refugee upgrade appeals, rights of appeal against removal, and construction of the Refugee Convention. Also brought into effect are provisions addressing failure to provide medical documentation, refusal of leave to enter, deportation, continuation of leave, employment codes of practice, fingerprinting and search powers. Read more

Amongst the changes, the Home Office chose to emphasise thatnationals from countries outside the European Economic Area who are being deported for reasons of national security will only be able to appeal in the UK on human rights grounds. Other grounds of appeal, including against the deportation decision itself, will only be considered after the person has been deported. Read more

Statutory Instrument 2006 No. 2228

The European Communities (Recognition of Qualifications and Experience) (Third General System) (Amendment) Regulations 2006

These Regulations Coming into force 2nd October 2006 and amend the European Communities (Recognition of Qualifications and Experience) (Third General System) Regulations 2002, which implemented Directive 99/42. They provide for mutual recognition in the Member States of qualifications in respect of certain activities.

These Regulations provide that the Secretary of State delegates the function of issuing certificates of experience to ECCTIS Limited.

Cases

In Uddin & Anor, R. (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2006] EWHC 2127 (Admin) (07 August 2006) the Administrative Court found that the AIT's approach to listing entry clearance appeals was not unlawful. However the AIT had failed to adequately advertise its system whereby appeals would be expedited in cases where there are compelling or compassionate circumstances. Read more

In Y v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2006] EWCA Civ 1223 (26 July 2006) (not yet uploaded to a publicly accessible website, but available to subscribers to www.casetrack.com , the Court of Appeal added to the recent welter of comments on the assessment of plausibility. An immigration judge should be cautious before finding an account to be inherently incredible, because there is a considerable risk that he will be over influenced by his own views on what is or is not plausible, and those views will have inevitably been influenced by his own background in this country and by the customs and ways of our own society.

Children: Care Orders: Adoption: Human Trafficking

Haringey Borough Council (Applicant) v C (a child by his children's guardian) (Respondent) & (1) Mrs E (2) Mr E (3) Mrs F (4) Kenya (Intervenors)

Adoption was the best way of securing the stability, security and identity most needed by a young child who had been abducted from his birth parents in Kenya and brought to the United Kingdom by a couple who genuinely, but incorrectly, believed that he was their natural son born as a result of a miracle. [2006] EWHC 1620 (Fam) 19/7/2006

Events

ASYLUM LAW TRAINING DAY "An Examination of the Requirement of Alienage within Article 1A2 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of refugees" - with Professor James Hathaway

Date: 16th Oct 2006, 9.30am - 5.30pm
Venue: Law Society , Chancery Lane, London WC1
Arranged and hosted by Catriona Jarvis, Senior Immigration Judge, and the Law Society Immigration Law Committee
Cost: Fee: £200.00 plus VAT £35.00. Total: £235.00, to include lunch. CDP Point: 6hrs
Booking Contact: Katerina Kyriacou: 020 7316 5683
Booking email: katerina.kyriacou@lawsociety.org.uk

Special ILPA/GMIAU/South Manchester Law Centre event :
100 years of immigration law : 1905-2005 Thursday 28 September 2006, 6.00pm at the Mechanics Institute, 103 Princess Street, ManchesterM1 6DD.
Chairs: Beate Desarathy (GMIAU), Paul Morris (SMLC).
Speakers will include: Steve Cohen - Immigration law in the 20th century : impact on Jewish communities.
Don Flynn - What has changed, and what remains the same
Rick Scannell - Representation in national security cases
Ian Macdonald QC - Legal history and context of UK immigration law

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