News
The Borders and Immigration Agency launched its new international strategy on Managing Global Migration, which sets out the UK's global plans in the fight to halt illegal immigration. Minister Liam Byrne and Lord Triesman, the Prime Minister's Special Envoy for Returns, met with their new French counterparts to begin discussions on new measures to strengthen both countries' borders, signing a treaty which will pave the way for successful juxtaposed controls to continue when Eurostar relocates its London operations to St Pancras and Ebbsfleet. More info
The Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) published its first Agency business plan setting out details of a programme for the year ahead, including the doubling of frontline enforcement capacity by April 2009. More info
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre published a report on the scale and nature of child trafficking in the UK. More info
In a Parliamentary question The Minister of State for the Home Office (Baroness Scotland of Asthal) stated, regarding medical evidence of torture, that there was a policy instruction, (more info) Binary which all case owners must follow, which clearly states that in considering a medical report they must avoid making clinical judgments. In addition, if they have concerns about medical aspects of a report prepared by the Medical Foundation, they should discuss those concerns with a senior caseworker, who must refer the matter to the foundation, in writing to the legal officer, before reaching a final decision on the asylum claim. More info
A Freedom of Information Act disclosure recorded that there had been 50 returns to Afghanistan made in May 2007, via two charter flights. More info
Cases
In CN (Burundi) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2007] EWCA Civ 587 (19 June 2007) the Court of Appeal found that in a "suicide risk" case in which Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights was invoked, a misunderstanding the evidence about the availability of anti-psychotic medication was a legal error and undermined a determination on the question of effective mechanisms to reduce the risk of suicide. Read the transcript
In Secretary of State for the Home Department v R(S) [2007] EWCA Civ 546 (19 June 2007) the Court of Appeal reversed, in favour of the asylum seeker, important elements of the decision of Collins J in the Administrative Court below. They found that the "Public Service Agreement" (PSA) between the Home Office and the Treasury that had set a target requiring that 60% of applications lodged on or after 1 January 2001 should be decided within 60 days, in the circumstances in which it had been applied to this case, represented a deliberate and unlawful decision in 2001 to postpone backlog cases, and was hence a situation, as in Rashid (read the transcript), that constituted "conspicuous unfairness amounting to abuse of power". Absent evidence to the contrary, the court was entitled to conclude on the balance of probabilities that a Claimant, had their claim been processed efficiently, would have obtained leave to remain within a particular timescale; and that a failure to do so was caused by illegality in decision making.More info
Events
On 27 June 2007 JCWI are running a course on Civil Claims against the Home Office; and on 29 June 2007 on EEA law and the Citizens Directive.
Free Garden Court Seminar
The interplay between family and immigration law - Click here to BOOK NOW
Tuesday 3rd July 2007
Garden Court Chambers
Speakers: Kathryn Cronin and Nadine Finch
