17 Children in detention: Clegg falls short on promise and other news

Urgent Action Appeal: Please help Ashot to stay in the UK

Ashot is a truly remarkable and courageous, as well as a kind and generous man. He has been living in my house for the last 9 months, so I have got to know him very well. His courageous act may well cost him his life, unless we can save him from deportation. :

Urgent Action Appeal

Please help Ashot to stay in the UK

39-year-old Ashot Aghababyan from Armenia is currently being held in detention and is due to be forcibly removed from the UK on Sunday 5th February Flight number BD 933 to Yerevan, 15:05 (Home Office Ref: A1435279) Read more

Enforced removal contracts: the abusive end-point of a broken immigration system

NCADC welcomes today’s report from the Home Affairs Select Committee, which raises concerns that the potentially lethal ‘head-down’ restraint technique is used during enforced removals, that racist language is used by escort staff, that there are too many escorts used in operations, and that risk assessments focus on the risk to escort staff rather the individual being removed.

We agree with its recommendations of better recording of medical conditions, an independent monitoring procedure, the need for urgent guidance to be issued to escort staff about restraint methods and research into appropriate restrain on aircraft, and the need to abolish the ‘reserve’ system during removals. Read more

BID: unlawful detention cases

A number of cases of former BID clients, which had been referred for unlawful detention claims in the Administrative Court reached judgment.  In all three cases summarised here, their detention was ruled unlawful.

In October 2011, the High Court found that the detention of Mounir Raki, a client of BID’s, for over four years was ‘self-evidently unreasonable’. BID referred Mounir to Leigh Day & Co Solicitors, who represented him in this case. The Judge found that there was medical evidence that Mounir’s mental health was deteriorating because of his detention and he was seriously self-harming. The case was covered in the Guardian. Read more

Landing in Dover – Office of Children’s Commissioner

Executive summary
0.1 This report follows on from the Children’s Commissioner’s earlier report Landing in Kent.3 It focuses on immigration procedures to which unaccompanied children arriving in Kent are subject between their first encounter with the authorities and the time they are placed in the care of Kent County Council children’s social care services.

0.2 Unaccompanied children are held under detention powers on, and immediately after, their arrival. Government policy is that unaccompanied children should only be detained in the most exceptional circumstances and only while arrangements for their care and safety are made. This policy is in line with the standard set by Article 37(b) of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) which requires that children should only be detained as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time. Read more

Child asylum seekers win compensation for 13-month detention

The Ay family, Kurdish refugees from Turkey, win six-figure payout from the Home Office eight years after childhood ordeal

Four children who were incarcerated in detention centres for 13 months – the longest time children have ever been locked up in the UK – have won a six-figure compensation payout from the Home Office more than eight years after their release. Read more

Immigration appeal fees coming soon

by freemovement on 14 December 2011

As previously highlighted on this blog, fees are to be introduced for immigration appeals. The date has now been set for this to begin: for notices of decision dated 19 December 2011 or later.

Strangely, as far as I can see, you won’t find anything about this on the Immigration and Asylum Chamber website. One might have thought some forewarning for litigants and their lawyers might be useful there in order to avoid invalid appeals come commencement. There is a short item about it on the UKBA website, at least. Read more

Reports: too many pregnant women in detention +

Nick Hardwick, Chief Inspector of Prisons, has published a new report on an inspection of Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire. (download the full report here, pdf) The report found that:

Bail for immigrants: a presumption of liberty?

Vulnerable Children will lose access to justice with cuts to legal aid

If you believe in access to justice, please join the campaign and take action now. For more information on what you can do, go to: Save Legal Aid, Justice For All and Sound Off for Justice.

On 13^th December, the rights of children were centre stage at a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Legal Aid in Westminster. Speakers including Baroness King and the Children’s Commissioner for England, Dr Atkinson, discussed how children and young people will be affected by Government plans to cut free legal advice and representation. This debate was perfectly timed as the bill setting out the cuts should enter the Lords committee stage on 20^th December. If it becomes law, children will lose out on a massive scale: 6,000 children under 18 would go without legal advice and representation, and 140,000 children would be affected because their parents could not get legal aid support. 2,500 children will lose direct legal assistance each year for immigration cases. Read more

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