Seeking asylum in the UK as a woman can result in legal and practical struggles to establish the need for protection as a refugee. This blog post will explain the key struggles faced and how the Home Office have applied assistance over the years to female immigrants, whilst also discussing the problem areas that still remain today.
From November 2021, a new department will be responsible for some decisions about whether someone is a victim of trafficking.
Since 2019, these decisions have all been made by a “Single Competent Authority”. Now, some people’s cases will be passed by the Single Competent Authority to the “Immigration Enforcement Competent Authority”.
Following a legal challenge by Islington Law Centre and the Migrant and Refugee Children’s Legal Unit (MiCLU), and campaigning by the organisation We Belong, the Home Office have announced a concession (a slight change in policy) for some young people who have been granted periods of limited leave and will eventually want to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain.
If you are an EEA/Swiss national and you were in the UK before 11pm on 31 December 2020, in most circumstances the deadline to apply to the Settled Status scheme was 30 June 2021.
Even though this main deadline has passed, it’s still possible to apply to the EU Settled Status scheme if you have what the Home Office consider to be “reasonable grounds” for delay.
We are delighted to say that, thanks to IRMO, we now have three animation videos about the UK asylum process in Spanish and six sections of the Right to Remain Toolkit translated!
Many people are trying to understand the situation for Afghans in the UK who do not have immigration status, and for people still in Afghanistan with possible rights to come to the UK.
There are many things that are still unclear and the situation is likely to change quite a lot.
In the meantime, here are a couple of useful resources for people wanting more information.
A 2021 Supreme Court decision has led to the Home Office changing their procedure for dealing with asylum claims involving accompanied children (children in the UK with a parent or guardian).
The case was called G v G and the important point of the case was that a child who is named as a dependant on an asylum claim can and should usually be deemed to have made a claim for asylum in their own right.
As a result of your experiences that have led you to claim asylum, you may have physical and/or mental health problems. If you wish these physical and/or mental health issues to form part of your asylum claim, you will need to provide evidence of them to the Home Office (and to the courts, later on in an asylum claim).
Our Management Committee member, Hyab Yohannes, considers what it would mean to “Decolonise Asylum” – countering the exclusive practices of othering, bordering and ordering.
Because of the Coronavirus public health crisis, there have been some temporary changes to the asylum and immigration process. This includes to the asylum substantive interview, further submissions, visa extensions, appeal hearings, reporting requirements and detention.