As anyone attempting to make an online immigration application in recent weeks will know, the system is in a mess. A right royal mess.
In recent months, many applications have been made online only and the process has been outsourced to a company called Sopra Steria.
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Last week, the Court of Appeal made a very important judgement on the Home Office’s policy on deciding the age of young people seeking asylum – also known as “age assessments”.
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A stateless person, as defined by the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons is “a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law”.
Although the UK signed up the 1954 Convention, there was no formal mechanism for recognising and providing protection to stateless people until 2013.
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It’s great to hear about the Toolkit in action!
Here’s Abid Haq, solicitor at Neil Barnes Solicitors in Glasgow, on how he uses the Toolkit with his clients.
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At one of the training sessions we ran this week with volunteers who are keen to learn more and do more for people seeking the right to remain in the UK – we looked at evidence. What ‘evidence’ means, in the context of asylum, immigration and human rights cases. How someone can get this evidence, and how others can help them. We discussed how important documentary evidence is, when so many legal cases are refused on the basis of credibility – the Home Office or the courts don’t believe you are telling the truth.
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Much of the Right to Remain Toolkit is based on people’s direct experience of the asylum and immigration system, and the ideas and actions they have found helpful to navigate the system and survive.
That’s particularly true for the Toolkit section on Preparing in Case of Detention.
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Last month, the organisation Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) released a briefing on the current situation of post-detention accommodation.
Already a problematic area, post-detention accommodation is now a crisis situation following the changes made in January 2018 (which you can read about on our blog here) which included the abolition of Section 4(1) accommodation. This accommodation was provided by the Home Office to people released from detention with nowhere else to stay, and with no other forms of support available to them.
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If someone is discriminated against because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group, they will not be entitled to protection under the Refugee Convention unless that discrimination is considered to amount to persecution.
Read more The Guardian newspaper reported this weekend on a distressing story of three children aged eight, six and five, who were taken into care when the Home Office detained their father, Kenneth Oranyendu.
The three children, and the children’s mother, are British citizens. Their mother is currently in Nigeria, attending a family funeral. Mr Oranyendu does not currently have the right to remain in the UK, and the Home Office is attempting to deport him from the UK (he has completed a three-year criminal sentence).
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This is a guest post by Tom Kemp. Tom is a member of SOAS Detainee Support and a PhD Student at Kent Law School. He is currently writing about anti-detention activism and political thinking in the everyday work of anti-border social movements.
Most of Schedule 10 of the Immigration Act 2016 were brought into force this month. Here’s 8 reason to hate them.
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Most people who have applied for asylum or other immigration status and have not had a positive decision have to regularly report at their local Home Office reporting centre or a police station. At every reporting visit, the person is at risk of detention, particularly if their application has been refused, which they may not know until they go and report.
This is why ‘signing support’ is such an important way of providing practical solidarity.
Find out more in this short film about the Bristol Signing Support group.
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Last month, Right to Remain were in Belfast delivering training on the substantive asylum interview to a group of peers. We spoke with Blessing, one of the peer coordinators, about what advice she would give someone preparing for the substantive interview.
Read moreWhen people reach the UK, the struggle isn’t over. It's a hostile environment. Right to Remain relies on grants from charitable trusts and on donations from people like you. Your donation will help us to help people in their struggles for the right to remain in the UK, and to campaign for migration justice.
Donate todayRight to Remain works with communities, groups and organisations across the UK, providing information, resources, training and assistance to help people to establish their right to remain, and to challenge injustice in the immigration and asylum system. Right to Remain is a registered charity (charity number 1192934).
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