News
November 2009
New President of the Asylum and Immigration Chamber in the Upper Tier Tribunal
June 2009 - with updates Silver ILPA
December 2008 UK lifts reservation to UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in respect of immigration
November 2008 Prayer against Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules HC 1113
The Early Day Motion can be found on the UK Parliament website. Two ILPA Briefings can be found on the Briefings page of this website. June 2008 Susan Rowlands OBE
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
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
February 2008 January 2008 ILPA Press Release
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 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.
January 2005 The ILPA Country Experts Directory is now on the EIN website as a searchable database.
ILPA congratulates the Honourable Mr Justice Blake on his appointment as President of the Asylum and Immigration Chamber in the Upper Tier Tribunal. ILPA was delighted
that the new President's first public engagement in his new role, a mere two days after his appointment, was an address to ILPA's Silver Anniversary Annual General Meeting on
21 November 2009. This was particularly fitting as the Honourable Mr Justice Blake, was, as Nicholas Blake QC, chair of ILPA from 1993 to 1997 in which role he did so much to raise the standards of advice in immigration, asylum and nationality law, to disseminate information to practitioners and to promote a just and equitable
immigration, asylum and nationality law practice.
This year is ILPA's 25th anniversary, 25 years since the inaugural meeting which took place on 12 July 1984 at
7pm in Committee Room 8 in the House of Commons. We hope that all members and those who have worked with ILPA
over this quarter of a century will be able to join us for some of the events to celebrate 25 years of hard and
productive work to raise standards of advice and representation in immigration, asylum and nationality law and to promote
a just and equitable immigration, asylum and nationality law practice.
See below for a programme of events that spans London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Cardiff. Many thanks to all those who are supporting Silver ILPA by hosting or contributing to events.
Events
5 July 2009, Manchester Town Hall, 2pm - 4pm, Perspectives on immigration law, chaired by Ian MacDonald
QC, President of ILPA, speakers Denise McDowell, Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit; Colin Yeo, Renaissance Chambers; Teresa Hayter, author of
'Open Borders' and persons who have been subject to immigration control, as part of a day of tributes to Steve Cohen. Kindly supported by Garden Court North Chambers.
ILPA members and all others welcome. No need to RSVP.
9 July 2009 Silver ILPA anniversary event at the House of Commons. By invitation only. Priority for
invitations is being given to those who were at the inaugural meeting or at ILPA's first AGM, and those who have been
members of the Executive Committee over the past 25 years. If you are one of those people, we are looking for you, please do
get in touch with info@ilpa.org.uk
16 July 2009 5.30pm, central London, Meeting with Lord Justice Carnwath on the future of immigration
and asylum appeals and their transfer into the Tribunals Service. ILPA members only, all members welcome.
Kindly supported by Doughty Street Chambers.
24 August to 12 October, free half-day training sessions on the use of country of origin information in asylum applications kindly provided by the Immigration
Advisory Service Research and Information Unit as part of the Silver ILPA celebrations. For further information and to book a place please get in touch
with Natasha.Tsangarides@iasuk.org
Courses are:
24 August, London, Somalia
9 September, London, Iran
15 September, Leeds, Iraq
16 September, Manchester, Internal Flight Alternative
17 September, Manchester, Iraq
22 September, Birmingham, Iraq
23 September, Birmingham, Internal Flight Alternative
30 September, London, Iraq
1 October, London, Internal Flight Alternative
7 October, London, Iran
8 October, London, Somalia
12 October, Cardiff, Somalia
11 November 2009, evening, central London. Round table on developments in immigration law. Invitation only.
Kindly supported by Matrix Chambers.
21 November 2009 ILPA AGM. Members only meeting followed by open conference with speakers including the Hon Mr Justice Blake and Dame Anne Owers DBE.
9 December 2009 Silver ILPA. A light-hearted recreation of ILPA's Panel Discussions in celebration of Silver ILPA, complete with nibbly bits. Open to all ILPA members. Places are limited, please RSVP to info@gclaw.co.uk.
Further events will be listed on this page, so do keep checking. We welcome approaches from anyone who is planning
an event that they would like to be joined to the ILPA anniversary celebrations, or who would like to plan or support
such an event, just get in touch with info@ilpa.org.uk
On 4 December 2008 the Secretary General of the United Nations gave notice of having received from
the UK a communication dated 18 November 2008 lifting the UK's reservation to the UN Convention
on the Rights of Child in respect of children under immigration control.
ILPA, which, along with other members of the Refugee Children's Consortium, has campaigned long and hard
for the reservation to be lifted, welcomes this significant development and looks forward to the increasing prominence of the Convention in protecting the rights of children under immigration control in the UK.
For the text of the UK communication, see
Text of the UK Communication 18 November 2008
Early Day Motion 2448 IMMIGRATION (HC 1113)of 6 November 2008 in the name of David Cameron states:
That the Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules (HC 1113), a copy
of which was laid before this House on 4th November, be disapproved.
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.
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.
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.
Border and Immigration Agency publishes proposals for unaccompanied children seeking asylum.
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 :