Education

Free Movement Weekly Immigration Newsletter #37

Published on September 24, 2024

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter!

Issues around the EU Settlement Scheme continue to make news, with the latest being the story of a Polish man who the Home Office was trying to remove despite his having lived here for 20 years and having applied twice to the EUSS.

We are one year on from the Brook House inquiry’s report, and last week it was reported that only one of the 33 recommendations have been implemented so far. That recommendation is “that the Home Office and its private contractors ensure that all staff were aware of a ban on handcuffing people behind their backs when sitting down, which can result in asphyxiation”. Apparently one of the recommendations that has not been implemented is for ministers “to instruct companies running immigration detention centres, that their staff should only use force as a last resort”.

The Home Office has announced that from 15 October 2024 the commercial partner for UK Visa and Citizenship application services will change from Sopra Steria to TLScontact.

The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration has extended the deadline for responding to the inspection on the Home Office’s use of age assessments. The new deadline is 9 October 2024.

On Free Movement, our professional conduct and ethics in immigration advice course has been updated and reflects the new OISC code of standards. Some lawyers may benefit from a bit of a refresher in that area, particularly after reading my post on the risks of a person using a fee waiver application for section 3C leave purposes only.

Last week we also had a post from Ross Kennedy taking a closer look at what can be expected from the Migration Advisory Committee’s review of the use of international recruitment and immigration in the information technology, telecommunications and engineering sectors.

We also had a couple of posts where issues have been raised about the Home Office’s use of country policy and information notes (CPIN). The first was a write up of a new commentary on the CPIN on LGBTQI+ people in Georgia and then today’s post is a look at the latest report from the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, which includes a review of the (now withdrawn) CPINs on Rwanda. Both are worth a close read by anyone who works in the asylum sector, as the issues are of wider significance.

For everything else on the blog and elsewhere, read on.

Cheers, Sonia