Latest items on this website
June 2008
Susan Rowlands OBE
The President, Executive Committee and staff of ILPA, on behalf of the whole membership, warmly congratulate Susan Rowlands on her award of an OBE.
The Honours List reads
‘Dr Susan Rowlands, lately General Secretary, Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association for services to Human Rights.’
At the time of Susan’s standing down as General Secretary, we recognised her contribution to ILPA, its work, development and membership. We are delighted to see this recognition of the wider contribution that she made in her work for a just and equitable system of immigration refugee and nationality law.
April 2008
Liam Byrne MP,
Minister of State to ILPA - re more information on HC 321 Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules 04.04.08
The Minister has written to ILPA providing further information about re-entry bans and mandatory refusals
for falsity under HC 321. He refuses to extend the concession to those who were not in the UK on 17 March 2008.He
confirms that falsity requires an element of deliberate deception, and also confirms that those granted a period
of lawful leave subsequent to a breach will not be subject to re-entry bans.
March 2008
28 March 2008 - Letter of Sophie Barrett-Brown, Chair, ILPA to Liam Byrne MP re HC 321 statement of changes in the immigration rules
Following intense work by ILPA members, the government on 17 March 2008 agreed to a concession whereby those in the UK who make a voluntary departure before 1 October 2008 will benefit from a concession outside the immigration rules that new rule 320(7B), imposing re-entry bans, will not be applied to them. ILPA's letter seeks to obtain clarification of the terms of the concession and to make the case for further changes to the rules on re-entry bans.
February 2008
January 2008
ILPA Press Release
Border and Immigration Agency publishes proposals for unaccompanied children seeking asylum.
January 2008
Successful challenge to detention of Algerians in the High Court. The High Court ruled that the detention of three Algerians who wished to return to Algeria but have been detained for over a year because although they had made applications for travel documents to the Algerian embassy these had been refused, in all cases over 10 months ago. No subsequent progress had been made although the detainees had made concerted attempts to prove their nationality. Mr Justice Mitting held that there was no basis for concluding that the three men could expect to be deported within a reasonable time.
January 2008
The UK government has announced that it intends to accelerate plans to ratify the Council of Europe Convention Against Trafficking in Human Beings, aiming to ratify the Convention by the end of the year. At the same time, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced that the government would review the UK's reservation to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in respect of children under immigration control.
House of Commons debate on 14 January April 2007 The Border and Immigration Agency was launched on 1 April 2007. March 2007 Information Service November 2006 'Seeking Asylum Alone' October 2006 ILPA Press Release August 2006 Home Office Process Communication :
revised instructions for handling injuctions against removal July 2006 New Statement of changes to the Immigration Rules HC 1337 : Deportation. A new statement of changes to the Immigration Rules, HC 1337 came into force
on 20 July 2006, having been laid before parliament on 19 July 2006.The
statement replaces paragraph 364 of the Immigration rules with a new
paragraph that provides that "while each case will be considered on its
merits, where a person is liable to deportation the presumption shall be
that the public interest requires deportation." The new paragraph 364 says
that it will only be in exceptional circumstances that the public interest
will be outweighed in a case not involving the ECHR and 1951 Refugee
Convention. Amendments are also made to paragraphs 367 and 395C.
June 2006 Factsheet on the Deportation of Foreign Nationals May 2006 ILPA's press release on Afghan Cases.
November 2005 IND/UKVisas, are attempting to backtrack on their announcements earlier this year
that entry clearance visas to enable individuals to register under the same-sex Civil Partnership regime
will be issued from Monday 14 November. Screenprint at 11.50am on 14 November 2005 of IND website March 2005 The new appeals regime come into force on Monday 4 April
2005. A new AIT web page will be available the week ending 4th April 2005.
Information and application forms are available from the HMSO web site . January 2005 The ILPA Country Experts Directory is now on the EIN website as a searchable database.
Further details of the Border and Immigration launch, new immigration fees from 2 April 2007 and the introduction of new tests for applicants seeking settlement.
See the new Info Service section for the latest Immigration Updates and Information Sheets
is to be released on Monday 13th November at Garden Court Chambers
Full report
"Section 2 Ill-drafted but not ambiguous"
Ruling could lead to the overturning of 100's of asylum seekers
HC 1337 can be found on the Home Office Website :
The explanatory memorandum :
The changes and their context are also described by the Minister of State, Liam Byrne MP in a written statement to parliament on 19 July 2006 :
ILPA and UKLGIG have issued a joint press release