The Weekly Round-up: Asylum System Overhaul

29 March 2021 by

In the news:

Home Secretary Priti Patel pledged a ‘fair but firm’ overhaul of the UK’s asylum system in the Commons on Thursday. The proposed measures aim to crack down on the criminal smuggling operations which helped 8,000 people cross the Channel by boat last year.

Under the Home Secretary’s proposals, asylum seekers would have their claims determined according to how they arrived in the UK. Those using ‘safe and legal resettlement routes’ directly from the countries they are fleeing, such as Syria and Iran, would obtain automatic permission to remain in the UK indefinitely. But anyone arriving with the aid of services offered by criminal smuggling gangs would only ever receive temporary permission to remain and would be regularly assessed for removal from the UK. 

The Home Secretary declared that such a regime would deter prospective asylum seekers from using the EU countries in which they first arrive as springboards for reaching the UK, and encourage them to make claims there instead.

The proposals raise political, legal and practical concerns. Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said the plans lacked compassion and would do ‘next to nothing to stop people making dangerous crossings.’ Human rights lawyers questioned whether discriminating according to method of arrival would be compatible with the UK’s obligation under the UN Refugee Convention not to penalise anyone who has ‘good cause’ to enter a nation illegally. And other critics have warned that the scheme is unworkable in any case, since the UK has no legal arrangements for returning rejected asylum seekers to any EU countries following Brexit.  

In other news:

  • On Thursday, MPs voted to extend emergency coronavirus powers for another six months. While some Conservatives rebelled on the grounds that the measures were ‘out of step’ with the roadmap out of lockdown, Health Secretary Matt Hancock insisted that the restrictions would remain in place ‘only as long as necessary’. He pointed to 12 provisions which were removed from the updated Act as no longer needed, including measures for retaining biometric data for health and security purposes. The once-unprecedented but now-familiar powers to shut down hospitality venues and detain individuals deemed at risk of spreading the virus will now remain available until September.
  • Half of women have little or no faith in the CPS’s ability to prosecute crimes committed against them, a poll revealed amid the outcry over the murder of Sarah Everard. Men were found to have significantly higher confidence in the official prosecution service. These findings were announced only a week after the ONS published a survey indicating that one in 40 young women in England and Wales experience sexual assault each year, and after the Suzy Lamplugh Trust announced that demand for its National Stalking Helpline has risen by nearly 10% since March last year. Amidst these reports, the Government amended its Domestic Abuse Bill to require police forces to collect data on crimes apparently motivated by hostility towards women, in what some commentators have seen as a step towards making misogyny a hate crime
  • A teacher at Batley Grammar School has been suspended after his decision to show pupils a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad provoked protests outside the school. The school released a statement apologising ‘unequivocally’, explaining that ‘it is important for children to learn about faiths and beliefs, but this must be done in a sensitive way.’ In response, a Department for Education spokesperson defended teachers’ prerogative to raise controversial issues with students.

In the courts:

  • Secretary of State for the Home Department v Starkey [2021] EWCA Civ 421 (26 March 2021). The Secretary of State won an appeal regarding her decision to refuse the Respondent’s human rights claim and to deport him to South Africa. The 2018 decision to deport the Respondent, a registered sex offender and paranoid schizophrenia sufferer, was based on the Home Secretary’s conclusion that public interest considerations outweighed competing concerns over the availability of treatment for the Respondent’s illness in South Africa. According to section 117C(6) of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, tribunals may only quash decisions to deport foreign criminals who have been sentenced to a period of four years’ imprisonment or more if there are ‘very compelling’ reasons to trump the naturally strong public interest in their deportation. On the basis of a wide range of conflicting expert testimony, the First Tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum) held that the present medical considerations were insufficiently compelling to quash the deportation order, only for the Upper Tribunal to reach the opposite conclusion on appeal. The Court of Appeal, in turn, reversed that ruling: the Upper Tribunal had misunderstood how high the threshold stipulated by section 117C(6) is – a threshold its findings of fact were not capable of reaching.
  • Newman v Southampton City Council & Ors [2021] EWCA Civ 437 (25 March 2021). The Court of Appeal upheld a High Court decision to refuse a journalist permission to access documents from a young child’s care and placement proceedings. The Appellant’s interest in the material derived primarily from her research into the high rates of under-fives being put up for adoption in the local authority. She had intended neither to identify the child nor to quote directly from the documents, but rather to use them to inform her broader research. Deciding such a matter involved a discretionary balancing exercise between the child’s Article 8 right to privacy and the Appellant’s Article 10 right to freedom of expression, set against the backdrop of the open justice principle. The Court of Appeal held that the High Court had identified and carried out that balancing exercise ‘with meticulous care’, and as such its decision should not be interfered with.

On the UKHRB:

Leave a Reply

Welcome to the UKHRB


This blog is run by 1 Crown Office Row barristers' chambers. Subscribe for free updates here. The blog's editorial team is:
Commissioning Editors: Darragh Coffey
Jasper Gold
Editorial Team: Rosalind English
Angus McCullough KC
David Hart KC
Martin Downs
Jim Duffy
Jonathan Metzer

Free email updates


Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog for free and receive weekly notifications of new posts by email.

Subscribe

Categories


Disclaimer


This blog is maintained for information purposes only. It is not intended to be a source of legal advice and must not be relied upon as such. Blog posts reflect the views and opinions of their individual authors, not of chambers as a whole.

Our privacy policy can be found on our ‘subscribe’ page or by clicking here.

Tags


Aarhus Abortion Abu Qatada Abuse Access to justice administrative court adoption ALBA Allison Bailey Al Qaeda animal rights anonymity Appeals Article 1 Protocol 1 Article 2 article 3 Article 4 article 5 Article 6 Article 7 Article 8 Article 9 article 10 Article 11 article 13 Article 14 Artificial Intelligence Asbestos assisted suicide asylum Australia autism benefits Bill of Rights biotechnology blogging Bloody Sunday brexit Bribery Catholicism Chagos Islanders charities Children children's rights China christianity citizenship civil liberties campaigners climate change clinical negligence Coercion common law confidentiality consent conservation constitution contempt of court Control orders Copyright coronavirus Coroners costs court of appeal Court of Protection covid crime Cybersecurity Damages Dartmoor data protection death penalty defamation deportation deprivation of liberty Detention diplomatic immunity disability disclosure Discrimination disease divorce DNA domestic violence duty of candour duty of care ECHR ECtHR Education election Employment Employment Law Employment Tribunal enforcement Environment Equality Act Ethiopia EU EU Charter of Fundamental Rights EU costs EU law European Court of Justice evidence extradition extraordinary rendition Family Fertility FGM Finance football foreign criminals foreign office France freedom of assembly Freedom of Expression freedom of information freedom of speech Gay marriage Gaza gender Gender Recognition Act genetics Germany gmc Google government Grenfell Health healthcare high court HIV home office Housing HRLA human rights Human Rights Act human rights news Huntington's Disease immigration India Indonesia injunction Inquests international law internet Inuit Iran Iraq Ireland Islam Israel Italy IVF Jalla v Shell Japan Japanese Knotweed Judaism judicial review jury trial JUSTICE Justice and Security Bill Land Reform Law Pod UK legal aid legal ethics legality Leveson Inquiry LGBTQ Rights liability Libel Liberty Libya Lithuania local authorities marriage Maya Forstater mental capacity Mental Health military Ministry of Justice modern slavery monitoring murder music Muslim nationality national security NHS Northern Ireland nuclear challenges nuisance Obituary ouster clauses parental rights parliamentary expenses scandal Parole patents Pensions Personal Injury Piracy Plagiarism planning Poland Police Politics pollution press Prisoners Prisons privacy Private Property Professional Discipline Property proportionality Protection of Freedoms Bill Protest Public/Private public access public authorities public inquiries public law Regulatory Proceedings rehabilitation Reith Lectures Religion RightsInfo Right to assembly right to die right to family life Right to Privacy Right to Roam right to swim riots Roma Romania Round Up Royals Russia Saudi Arabia Scotland secrecy secret justice Sex sexual offence sexual orientation Sikhism Smoking social media Social Work South Africa Spain special advocates Sports Standing statelessness Statutory Interpretation stop and search Strasbourg Supreme Court Supreme Court of Canada surrogacy surveillance Syria Tax technology Terrorism tort Torture Transgender travel treaty TTIP Turkey UK Ukraine UK Supreme Court unduly harsh united nations unlawful detention USA US Supreme Court vicarious liability Wales War Crimes Wars Welfare Western Sahara Whistleblowing Wikileaks Wild Camping wind farms WomenInLaw YearInReview Zimbabwe

Tags


Aarhus Abortion Abu Qatada Abuse Access to justice administrative court adoption ALBA Allison Bailey Al Qaeda animal rights anonymity Appeals Article 1 Protocol 1 Article 2 article 3 Article 4 article 5 Article 6 Article 7 Article 8 Article 9 article 10 Article 11 article 13 Article 14 Artificial Intelligence Asbestos assisted suicide asylum Australia autism benefits Bill of Rights biotechnology blogging Bloody Sunday brexit Bribery Catholicism Chagos Islanders charities Children children's rights China christianity citizenship civil liberties campaigners climate change clinical negligence Coercion common law confidentiality consent conservation constitution contempt of court Control orders Copyright coronavirus Coroners costs court of appeal Court of Protection covid crime Cybersecurity Damages Dartmoor data protection death penalty defamation deportation deprivation of liberty Detention diplomatic immunity disability disclosure Discrimination disease divorce DNA domestic violence duty of candour duty of care ECHR ECtHR Education election Employment Employment Law Employment Tribunal enforcement Environment Equality Act Ethiopia EU EU Charter of Fundamental Rights EU costs EU law European Court of Justice evidence extradition extraordinary rendition Family Fertility FGM Finance football foreign criminals foreign office France freedom of assembly Freedom of Expression freedom of information freedom of speech Gay marriage Gaza gender Gender Recognition Act genetics Germany gmc Google government Grenfell Health healthcare high court HIV home office Housing HRLA human rights Human Rights Act human rights news Huntington's Disease immigration India Indonesia injunction Inquests international law internet Inuit Iran Iraq Ireland Islam Israel Italy IVF Jalla v Shell Japan Japanese Knotweed Judaism judicial review jury trial JUSTICE Justice and Security Bill Land Reform Law Pod UK legal aid legal ethics legality Leveson Inquiry LGBTQ Rights liability Libel Liberty Libya Lithuania local authorities marriage Maya Forstater mental capacity Mental Health military Ministry of Justice modern slavery monitoring murder music Muslim nationality national security NHS Northern Ireland nuclear challenges nuisance Obituary ouster clauses parental rights parliamentary expenses scandal Parole patents Pensions Personal Injury Piracy Plagiarism planning Poland Police Politics pollution press Prisoners Prisons privacy Private Property Professional Discipline Property proportionality Protection of Freedoms Bill Protest Public/Private public access public authorities public inquiries public law Regulatory Proceedings rehabilitation Reith Lectures Religion RightsInfo Right to assembly right to die right to family life Right to Privacy Right to Roam right to swim riots Roma Romania Round Up Royals Russia Saudi Arabia Scotland secrecy secret justice Sex sexual offence sexual orientation Sikhism Smoking social media Social Work South Africa Spain special advocates Sports Standing statelessness Statutory Interpretation stop and search Strasbourg Supreme Court Supreme Court of Canada surrogacy surveillance Syria Tax technology Terrorism tort Torture Transgender travel treaty TTIP Turkey UK Ukraine UK Supreme Court unduly harsh united nations unlawful detention USA US Supreme Court vicarious liability Wales War Crimes Wars Welfare Western Sahara Whistleblowing Wikileaks Wild Camping wind farms WomenInLaw YearInReview Zimbabwe
%d