JCWI WEBSITE

Many people have been in contact asking about the absence of JCWI’s main website from the internet over the weekend.

We are currently moving all content to a new site and integrating this blog into the site, to provide a cleaner, simpler presence in one place for all JCWI’s internet activity. The web address will remain the same and there will be an automatic transfer from this blog to the new blog on the main site, so once it is up and running, the move should be seamless!

At present there appears to be a problem with the outgoing website hosts which we hope will be resolved today.

Meanwhile if you would like to contact JCWI, our main phone number is 020 7251 8708 and our main email address is info@jcwi.org.uk

STOP PRESS

The new website is now up and running –  check it out!

Green reaffirms Disability Discrimination

The Conservatives have always enjoyed a somewhat murky relationship with ideas of equality and non-discrimination. From their opposition to the race equality laws proposed by the Wilson Government in the 1960s, to the enactment of the Immigration Act  in the 70s, (which sought to clamp down on immigration by non-white migrants) to their more recent noise-making about parts of the Equality Act. It would be fair to say that the Conservatives have a long history of sabotaging and scuppering anti-discrimination initiatives.

Review outcome

With the above in mind, it should come as no major surprise that following the UK’s review of its general immigration reservation to the UN Convention of the Rights of People with Disabilities (“CRPD”), Damian Green has announced the Government’s intention to

Nick Clegg – you’ve got mail.

Theresa May obviously thinks Nick Clegg needs persuading – or at least is persuadable. In her ‘leaked’ letter to him about the coming Immigration Rule changes to be laid before Parliament in the next few months, she seeks to persuade Mr Clegg of the wisdom of choosing upper figure for maintenance thresholds for spouses/partners outlined by MAC in their snappily entitled report Review of the minimum income requirement for sponsorship under the family migration route.

We’ve briefed and blogged about this before and we’re hoping that Mr Clegg has been following what we’ve been saying, but in case he hasn’t we popped a letter (see below) in the post to him last week.

Abubakar v SSHD

Abubakar v Entry Clearance Officer (Sannaa) [2012] EWCA Civ 377 (28 March 2012 – read the judgment here

Facts

This case before the Court of Appeal  dealt with the interpretation of  rule 317 (iva) of the Immigration Rules (HC 395) post Mahad. Rule 317 (iva) applies to parents, grandparents and other dependant relatives seeking indefinite leave to enter or remain in the UK. It  stipulates that applicants and any dependants are adequately maintained without recourse to public funds.

JD (Congo) and Others v SSHD

JD (Congo) WN (Gambia) ES(Iran) MR (Bangladesh)  v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2012] EWCA Civ 327

By section 13(6) of the TCEA 2007, and the 2008 Order, permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal  is not to be granted unless a proposed appeal would raise some important point of principle or practice, or that there is some compelling reason for the Court of Appeal to hear the case.  This is known as the ‘second tier appeals test’, and is something JCWI campaigned against in the past.

This case before the Court of Appeal  looked at how the ‘compelling reason’ head of the ‘second-tier appeals test’ applies in two different scenarios.  The first is where appellants succeed before the First Tier Tribunal, but proceed to fail in the Upper Tribunal following a successful appeal by the SSHD.  The second is where the appellants fail twice in the tribunals system but the original FTT adverse decision is set aside because it contains a material error in circumstances where the UT goes on to remake the decision and dismiss it at appeal.

The asylum seekers and migrants who were left to die…

The report by the Council of Europe’s Special Rapporteur Lives lost in the Mediterranean Sea: who is responsible? Is now available to download from the COE website.

1500 migrant deaths in 2011

The report starts by noting that a shocking 1500 migrants are known to have lost their lives crossing the Mediterranean in 2011 alone, but focuses on the tragic event in March 2011 which led to the death of 63 out of the 72 migrant passengers.  In summary, a ship left Tripoli in Libya, it was at sea for 2 weeks during which no one came to the aid of the boat despite the logging of a distress call, and despite coming into  contact with other vessels. It drifted back to Libya with only 9 survivors on board.

Legal Aid bill returns to Commons

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill has it’s third reading in the House of Lords.  It is expected to return to the House of Commons on 17 April for MPs to consider Lords’ amendments. 

Death by visa?

It’s the anniversary of the uprising in Syria. With the death toll having reached around the 8000 mark, the grim discovery earlier this week of yet more dead children’s bodies, and the apparent planting, by Syrian forces, of landmines to prevent refugee flows out of Syria, one might have hoped for a sufficiently compassionate and humane response from the Coalition – afterall the UK was actively involved in drafting the UDHR which enshrines the the right to seek and enjoy asylum in precisely such circumstances. So what has the Coalition’s response to all of this been?

Changes to Immigration Rules laid before Parliament today

The Government has today laid a ministerial statement in Parliament outlining various worring changes to the Immigration Rules. Most of the changes are due to take effect on 6 April 2012, although some of the changes to Tier 2 will affect those who were granted leave after 6 April 2011.Key changes as identified by UKBA on their website are as follows:

Tier 2 – skilled workers

• Limiting the total amount of temporary leave that may be granted to a Tier 2 migrant to 6 years (which applies to those who entered after 6 April 2011).
• Introducing a new minimum pay requirement of £35,000 or the appropriate rate for the job, for Tier 2 general and sportsperson migrants who wish to settle here from April 2016 (with exemptions for those in PhD level and shortage occupation categories).
• Introducing a ‘cooling-off period’ across all the Tier 2 routes. Tier 2 migrants will

Last chances on Legal Aid

The Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association who’ve been heavily involved with lobbying on the Legal Aid Bill are flagging up that there’s a potential opportunity to put some final pressure on Government with a view to getting a better deal on legal aid.

Immigration is due to be debated on Monday 12 March – Labour have tabled an amendment that would bring immigration work into scope, so there’s likely to be a short discussion about that, followed by a debate about exceptional funding given that amendments including an immigration-specific amendment to permit exceptional funding where the case is complex and the individual would be without representation) have been tabled.

What you can do

ILPA have suggested the following (by no later than Monday morning (12 March)