Immigration News Weekly Roundup – 3 June 2024

  Immigration News Weekly Roundup – 3 June 2024

In contradiction with Mental Health Awareness Week, the Home Secretary, James Cleverly passed insensitive remarks suggesting that asylum seekers at a controversial mass accommodation site are disingenuously reporting suicidal thoughts to secure relocation from their current accommodation arrangements at the former military base. This unempathetic approach from the Government has been heavily criticised by human rights campaigners, especially considering a recent news report confirming the rise in suicide rates and suicidal ideation among asylum seekers at Wethersfield in Essex.

As the general election approaches, the Government continues to detail the asylum seekers whom the Home Office began detaining since 29 April during a nationwide operation called “Operation Vector.” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak admitted that no Rwanda deportation flights will take place before the election. The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants confirmed cases where the Home Office “insisted on maintaining detention,” even though immigration judges have released at least 24 asylum seekers due to reasons such as lack of clarity over the timetable.

Asylum seekers detained by the Home Office and threatened with deportation to Rwanda are planning to take legal action against the Government, arguing that their indefinite detention is unlawful under the current circumstances.

Furthermore, according to figures from the National Audit Office, the UK has spent £290m out of £310m allocated to Rwanda so far. The Government’s actions have halted the consideration of whether any of the asylum seekers should be recognised as refugees and given permission to work.

Deportations always come at a heavy cost for those affected, and it is crucial that the process is handled with the utmost care, diligence, and compassion to minimise the profound impact on individuals and families. This is evident from the news from a family of a man who died abroad after being wrongly deported by the UK Home Office in 2019. His family hold the Home Office responsible for causing delays that prevented him from being reunited with his children, despite an immigration tribunal ruling in November 2023 that accepted his appeal based on his right to family life in the UK.

Amidst these challenges, there is a glimmer of positivity with the news of a Tribunal overturning the Home Office’s decision to revoke a care home’s sponsor licence. In the case of New Hope Care Ltd, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 1270 (Admin), the High Court found that the revocation decision was procedurally unfair, as the care home was not given proper notice of the Home Office’s concerns or a fair opportunity to respond to them before the decision was made, contrary to the published policy, legitimate expectations, and the requirements of common law procedural fairness. Consequently, the care home’s sponsor licence was reinstated by the court order to recruit overseas workers.

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For enquiries, contact us enquiries@hjt-training.co.uk or call 075441 64692.

For the full list of updates on media news, reports and Home Office Policy and other document updates, see below

IMMIGRATION NEWS

James Cleverly suggests asylum seekers are lying about being suicidal – The Guardian.

Human rights campaigners have criticised the Home Secretary for suggesting that asylum seekers at a controversial mass accommodation site are lying about being suicidal in the hope of being moved off the former military base.

ITV News reported last week on a “severe mental health crisis” at Wethersfield in Essex, with many incidents of suicide and self-harm including five to 10 suicide attempts and 10 of self-harm in January this year alone – the highest level since the site opened.

For full report, click here

Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda admission sparks legal action from detained asylum seekers – The Guardian.
Asylum seekers detained by the Home Office and threatened with deportation to Rwanda are set to take legal action against the Government after Rishi Sunak admitted that no flights will take place before the general election.

The Home Office started raiding accommodation and detaining people who arrived at routine immigration-reporting appointments on 29 April in a nationwide push codenamed Operation Vector.

For full report, click here

Labour has ‘no plans’ to allow health worker visas to include family members – The Guardian.

Labour has “no plans” to change rules barring health and care workers from bringing their families to the UK on their visas, despite a plummeting number of NHS staff since the rules were changed earlier this year.

Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said the health service had become too reliant on overseas staff and the party would aim to recruit and train workers from the UK.

For full report, click here

Families in UK in ‘state of limbo’ due to backlog of visa fee waiver applications – The Guardian.

Vulnerable families across the UK are facing “fear and uncertainty” due to a Home Office backlog in processing their visa fee waiver applications, leaving them in a “perpetual state of limbo”, according to migrant charities.

A record 18,528 applications for visa fee waivers were submitted to the Home Office in the first quarter of this year, but almost 33,000 submissions remain outstanding – the highest number recorded by the Home Office.

For full report, click here

Home Office made mistakes in rush to set up asylum housing, MPs say – The Guardian.

The Home Office has made “unacceptable and avoidable mistakes” in its haste to use disused airfields and a barge to house asylum seekers, parliament’s spending watchdog has concluded.

The public accounts committee said the department “does not have a credible plan” to send asylum seekers to Rwanda and has little to show for hundreds of millions of pounds spent so far on the policy or its accommodation plans.

For full report, click here

Rwanda’s top UK diplomat oversaw use of Interpol to target regime opponents – The Guardian.

Rwanda’s top diplomat in the UK oversaw the use of the international justice system to target opponents of the country’s rulers around the world, the Guardian can reveal.
New details of the Rwandan government’s suppression of opposition beyond its borders add to concerns about the regime at the heart of Rishi Sunak’s asylum policy.

For full report, click here

UK moving to ‘sectarian politics’ with women excluded from inner cities, says Farage – The Guardian.

Nigel Farage has said Britain is moving towards “sectarian politics with women completely excluded” in inner cities and towns, as he called for rising levels of Channel crossings to be declared a “national security emergency”.

Reform UK’s honorary president also defended comments he made on Sunday saying a growing number of Muslims do not share British values, and rejected accusations over the years that he had used antisemitic and Islamophobic dog whistles.

For full report, click here

National reckonings and public inquiries: what scandals come next? – The Guardian.

Reckonings with shocking national scandals have lately become a defining feature of British public life.

Some, like the Post Office and infected blood scandals, have erupted from cases of wrongdoing hidden in plain sight. Again and again, whistle blowers are shown to have been sidelined, ignored and dismissed.

For full report, click here

Family of man who died after being deported blame Home Office delays – The Guardian.

The family of a man who died abroad after being wrongly deported by the UK Home Office have blamed the department for causing delays that stopped him being reunited with his children.

Sudharsan Ithayachandran, 41, was deported from the UK to Sri Lanka on 24 December 2019 – his wedding anniversary – after admitting to working illegally at Tesco and using false documents.

For full report, click here

Nigel Farage under fire after saying Muslims do not share British values – The Guardian.

Nigel Farage has come under fire for using his first election interview to “spout Islamophobia, hatred and divisive comments” after he said a growing number of Muslims do not share British values.

The honorary president of the Reform UK party drew heavy criticism on Sunday after claiming Rishi Sunak had allowed “more people into the country who are going to fight British values” than any UK leader before him.

For full report, click here

Labour may give 16- and 17-year-olds right to vote, says Keir Starmer – The Guardian.

16 and 17-year-olds could be given the right to vote if Labour wins the general election, Keir Starmer has confirmed.

“If you can work, if you can pay tax, if you can serve in your armed forces, then you ought to be able to vote,” the Labour leader said while campaigning at a football ground in the West Midlands.

For full report, click here

Record 10,170 people arrive in UK via small-boat Channel crossings this year – The Guardian.

A record 10,170 people have arrived in the UK so far this year after crossing the Channel in small boats, according to government data.

The provisional figure beats the previous record of 9,326 who crossed to the UK by this time in 2017. The comparable figure for last year was 7,326.

For full report, click here

No credible plan to make Rwanda move work, say MPs – BBC News

One of the most important cross-party parliamentary committees says the Home Office does not have a credible plan to implement its Rwanda scheme for asylum seekers.

In a highly critical report, the Public Accounts Committee said the government’s accommodation plan had fallen “woefully short of reality”.

For full report, click here

Theresa May admits mistakes over migrant policies – BBC News

Former Prime Minister Theresa May has admitted making mistakes over her “hostile environment” policies on illegal immigration.

She said she did not foresee problems they would cause for legal immigrants, including the Windrush generation.

For Full report, click here

Inside the secret government Rwanda training base – BBC NEWS

Plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda have already proved to be divisive. The Conservatives say flights will take off if they are re-elected, but Labour want to scrap the policy completely.

BBC News has been given access to a secret training location, where hundreds of staff are being taught how to deal with people who refuse to go.

For full report, click here

CASE LAW

Varkey & Joseph (ETS – Hidden rooms) v SSHD [2024] UKUT 00142 (IAC).

The Upper Tribunal considered the reliability of evidence provided by Educational Testing Service (ETS) in identifying fraudulent English language test results. Despite new expert evidence suggesting that there were methods by which fraudulent test administrators could fake results without the candidate’s knowledge, the Upper Tribunal found that there was no proof that such methods had been used.

Consequently, the Upper Tribunal upheld its previous decision in DK and RK (ETS: SSHD evidence, proof) India [2022] UKUT 112 (IAC), confirming that ETS evidence, while not conclusive, is overwhelmingly reliable and can be relied upon by the Secretary of State to prove dishonesty on the balance of probabilities.

In this particular case, the Upper Tribunal found that the Appellant had not adequately answered the case against him and allowed the Secretary of State’s appeal.

For full decision, visit here

New Hope Care Ltd, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 1270 (Admin)

The Claimant challenged the Defendant’s decision to revoke its sponsor license. The High Court found that the revocation decision was procedurally unfair, as the Claimant was not given proper notice of the Defendant’s concerns or a fair opportunity to respond to them before the decision was made, contrary to the Defendant’s published policy, the Claimant’s legitimate expectations, and the requirements of common law procedural fairness.

However, the Court rejected the Claimant’s other grounds of challenge, finding that the decision was not irrational, did not involve any misdirection as to the meaning of the Defendant’s policy, and did not fail to carry out a “global assessment” of the impact of revocation. Accordingly, the claim for Judicial Review succeeded and the Court made an order quashing the Home Office’s decision to revoke the Claimant’s sponsor license.

For full decision, visit here

HOME OFFICE GUIDANCE AND DOCUMENTS POLICY UPDATES

Guidance: Prove your English language abilities with a secure English language test (SELT) has been updated on 31st May 2024. To view the updated Guidance, click here

Guidance: Register of licensed sponsors workers has been updated on 31st May 2024. To view the updated Guidance, click here

Guidance: Register of licensed sponsors: students has been updated on 31st May 2024. To view the updated Guidance, click here

Form: Extend your stay in the UK as a child of a non-parent relative with protection status in the UK FLR(P) has been updated on 31st May 2024. To view the form, click here

Guidance: Gambia tuberculosis test clinics for a UK visa has been updated on 30th May 2024. To view the updated Guidance, click here

Collection: Migration transparency data has been updated on 30th May 2024. To view the collection, click here

Guidance: Democratic Republic of Congo tuberculosis test clinics for a UK visa has been updated on 30th May 2024. To view updated the Guidance, click here

Transparency data: Ukraine Visa Schemes visa data has been updated on 30th May 2024. To view the data, click here

Guidance: Illegal working civil penalties anonymous regional report has been updated on 30th May 2024. To view the updated, Guidance click here

Guidance: Illegal working penalties Midlands and East has been updated on 30th May 2024. To view the updated Guidance, click here

Guidance: Illegal working penalties North East, Yorkshire and Humberside has been updated on 30th May 2024. To view the updated Guidance, click here

Guidance: Illegal working penalties Scotland and Northern Ireland has been updated on 30th May 2024. To view the updated Guidance, click here

Guidance: Illegal working penalties London and the South East has been updated on 30th May 2024. To view the updated Guidance, click here

Guidance: Illegal working penalties Wales and the South West has been updated on 30th May 2024. To view the updated Guidance, click here

Guidance: Illegal working penalties North West has been updated on 30th May 2024. To view the  updated Guidance, click here

Guidance: Discretionary leave caseworker has been updated on 30th May 2024. To view updated Guidance, click here

Guidance: Ethiopia tuberculosis test clinics for a UK visa has been updated on 29th May 2024. To view the updated Guidance, click here

Guidance: Cameroon tuberculosis test clinics for a UK visa has been updated on 29th May 2024. To view the updated Guidance, click here

Guidance: China tuberculosis test clinics for a UK visa has been updated on 29th May 2024. To view the updated Guidance, click here

Guidance: Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and leaving care funding instructions has been updated on 28th May 2024. To view updated Guidance, click here

Guidance: Pakistan tuberculosis test clinics for a UK visa has been updated on 28th May 2024. To view the updated Guidance, click here

Form: Register as a British citizen if you were born on or after July 2006 and your mother was married to someone other than your natural father (form UKF(M))  has been updated on 28th May 2024. To view the form, click here

Form: Register as a British citizen (form UKM) has been updated on 28th May 2024. To view the form, click here

Form: Application to register as British Overseas Territories citizen has been updated on 28th May 2024. To view the form, click here

Form: Register as a British citizen – stateless person born outside the UK or British Overseas Territories (form S2) has been updated on 28th May 2024. To view the form, click here

Form: Register as a British citizen – stateless person born before 1983 (form S1) has been updated on 28th May 2024. To view the form, click here

Form: Register as a British citizen – UK-born stateless person (form S3) has been updated on 28th May 2024. To view the form, click here

Form: Register as a British citizen (form RS1) has been updated on 28th May 2024. To view the form, click here

Form: Register as a British citizen (form UKF) has been updated on 28th May 2024. To view form, click here

Form: Register as a British citizen (form T) has been updated on 28th May 2024. To view the form, click here

Guidance: Belarus tuberculosis test clinics for a UK visa has been updated on 24th May 2024. To view the updated Guidance, click here

Guidance: Assessing age for asylum applicant’s caseworker has been updated on 24th May 2024. To view the updated Guidance, click here

Form: Knowledge of language and Life in the UK Test exemption long term physical or mental condition has been updated on 24th May 2024. To view the form, click here

Guidance: Powers and operational procedure caseworker has been updated on 24th May 2024. To view the updated Guidance, click here

Guidance: Offender management caseworker guidance has been updated on 24th May 2024. To view the updated Guidance, click here

Guidance: Global Talent caseworker has been updated on 24th May 2024. To view updated Guidance, click here

 

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