Sonia L
@SoniaL77
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Human rights lawyer. Migrant. Queer. Raspberry farmer. Personal account, obvs. She/her
London
Joined July 2012
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Have never felt worse when voting, actually thought I was going to burst into tears when I dropped it into the box. Anyway, tactical vote done.
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I am a Remain voter in Putney (Labour second place and I understand this to be a target seat), my vote is entirely up for grabs. Good to know what Labour's priorities are just as I had just about managed to swallow that I would need to vote for them. Lib Dems it is.
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You simply can't complain about last minute legal challenges when the last minute is a person's first chance to see a lawyer.
As detailed in this article, we are extremely concerned about the ability of people housed in the MoD barracks to be able to access legal advice. We have raised this with the Home Office multiple times and will continue to chase for a response.
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It is not last minute when the first time a person can access legal advice is when they get to an Immigration Removal Centre with a flight booked. If the Home Office wants to prevent these it should be facilitating early legal advice, not criticising those upholding the law.
It’s being reported some people expected on today’s flight were given a late reprieve. The Home Office says “It is disappointing that specialist immigration law firms continued to use last minute tactics to remove a significant number of offenders from this flight.”
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Enjoyed this: "Classic Theresa. She never did see a burning injustice she couldn't tackle with petrol."
Crushing legal defeat for govt could finally kill off the Hostile Environment - by
@JCWI_UK
's
@chaipatel0
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Oh am loving this:
"The prime minister is the political equivalent of someone trying to eat soup with a knife."
Weekly newsletter goes out in a bit - with a rather scathing assessment of May's strategic, tactical, moral, political and presentational inadequacies. Sign up here to get it hours before it goes on site
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And, as a friend just pointed out, £38k is more than the Home Office pays the HOPOs who will have to defend this in court
An observation: the thresholds announced today for spousal visas would mean that a very significant number of parliamentary staff would, if they fall in love with and marry someone from abroad, be unable to bring them to the UK on a spousal visa.
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This unscrupulous lot must be held to account. Unsurprising that they are trying to prevent that, given their attitude towards the rule of law.
The front page of tomorrow's Sunday Telegraph: PM speeds up hospital building to aid economy
#TomorrowsPapersToday
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"Typical questions include, ‘How can you be lesbian and Christian?’, ‘Isn’t the Bible against being gay?’ and ‘Don’t you think you’re contradicting yourself?’."
NEWS: A new report has found that the Home Office is using religion against LGBT people in need of refugee protection.
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Blocking dickheads cheers me up though so by all means go for it in the replies 👇
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Life imprisonment for victims of trafficking. Shame on everyone involved in drafting this, and on those who will vote it through
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The Home Office simply cannot be trusted to give the correct information about a person's immigration status. I have come across people who have lost their jobs as a result of mistakes made by the Home Office via the Employer Checking Service. Right to rent checks must end.
The Hostile Environment didn't go away, people just stopped reporting on it: Hundreds of Commonwealth nationals evicted under anti-migrant 'right to rent' rule
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In 2022 the UK has been recognising Rwandans as refugees, and granting them leave on that basis
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Actually open mouthed at the Minister saying that people from Afghanistan should be coming using safe and legal routes to avoid being sent to Rwanda - how exactly, you can't apply under the ACRS?!
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Some, er, personal news (!!!!)
Big news at Free Movement: new Editor and new live OISC level 1 training course
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Very difficult to believe this sort of thing is benign given the HO's track record, and this on the latest ICIBI report:
"To this end, the report says that the Home Office wants to create a centralised digital database of immigrants." (from FM article)
Home Office has EU citizens in a bit of a headlock. They have to hand over their personal data to use the settled status app - but the govt won't say what they're going to use it for.
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Response from the HO in this article: "Detainees are given ample opportunities to seek any legal advice they require whilst in immigration removal centres"
They either know this is incorrect, or are willfully ignorant of the issues surrounding the detained duty advice scheme.
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Rage levels pretty high after fielding queries from people with British passports, worried that they don't have the right to be here because of the Windrush scandal. Beyond disgusting that the government have created this situation and are putting people through this anxiety.
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And now we have some coverage, by the excellent Chaminda Jayanetti
I just had a look but can't see that there has been any media coverage of this - so FYI for anyone who doesn't know - the HO has been sending out generic emails to lawyers, intended for clients who are not named in the email, advising them to get an eVisat
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There is an important action to take in respect of this appalling decision by the government, linked to at the bottom of the article and here:
Closing in on the 30,000 signature goal, please do add your name, share and support this vital work.
Govt announces that refugee integration services funded via an EU grant programme will be cut immediately in the event of no-deal
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Furious, horrified, but most of all desperately worried about the Home Office's continuing failure to help those subject to the No Recourse to Public Funds condition. It is an evil policy at the best of times, and this is certainly not that.
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"It affects so many people that it allows them to pick and choose who they target.
They could target the housewife of a rich banker with no comprehensive health insurance. But of course they do not. They target the homeless, the destitute and the desperate."
While no-one was looking, the government has started adding extra requirements to the EU settled status system
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People kept asking me what was going on with these short notice evictions, so I spent a bit of time hopefully figuring it out.
Thanks to those that helped:
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Good to end the working week with a laugh
Priti Patel says she has ‘a lot of compassion and cares deeply about people’
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Cannot believe that in the midst of *all this* I also managed to get a distinction on my dissertation. Am I some kind of superhero? Clearly the answer is yes
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"A freedom of information request has revealed that the number of reports from MPs went up from 70 in 2017 to 101 in 2018."
Shameful behaviour by MPs involved, list of those who have pledged not to do this:
Unsafe to send clients to MPs not on this list.
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"It will enable Ukrainians permanently settled in the UK to stay."
Ummmm. As opposed to what??
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"Under the circumstances it is unsurprising that the Government is seeking to appeal the ruling, seemingly unconcerned about the optics of spending further public money on fighting for the right to cause racial discrimination."
"Govt is so blithely undisturbed by the impact of its policies on our ethnic minority communities and migrants that it defends the hostile environment in the face of all reason and all evidence."
Our blog for
@freemovementlaw
on the Right to Rent victory!
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An Iranian man who had fled due to persecution based on his sexuality was prosecuted for steering a boat of people across the Channel. The Court of Appeal quashed the convictions and following a re-trial he was acquitted yesterday.
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Do I really need to say this again?
Claims are brought at the last minute due an inability to access quality legal advice at an early stage. Something the HO should be moving heaven and earth to help facilitate, and yet...
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An incredible tiny organisation with outsized impact. They help those facing homelessness or extreme poverty as a result of 'no recourse to public funds' imposed on their leave by Home Office to get it lifted.
If you can't donate your time, pls consider £
@BestForBritain
@the3million
@BritishInEurope
@JCWI_UK
@hopenothate
@electoralreform
@MakeVotesMatter
@SFFakeNews
@SBSisters
@libertyhq
@Shelter
Ah, sorry - Unity Project are on Twitter here
@TUPLDN
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Disclosure of gov docs in the legal case has unsurprisingly thrown up a number of issues, including the fact the HO allowed Rwandan gov to review and provide input to the country policy and information notes (!!!!)
New: British officials repeatedly told the government not to strike a deal with Rwanda over asylum seekers, court documents have revealed
It was “initially excluded from the shortlist of potential partner countries on human rights grounds”
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It was always going to end like this really. Grateful to all my sector colleagues, and parliamentarians, who have worked so hard to fight this harmful legislation tooth and nail, despite the odds. This bit might be over, but we aren't even close to giving up the fight
Only one vote, comfortably won by the government. So that's that. The bill will now get Royal assent at some point over the next day.
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Very prolonged applause for Gina Miller who became briefly overcome with emotion. What she did is so important.
#ThinkAnewActAnew
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"The High Court in London has today ruled the £1,012 fee the Home Office charges children
to register as a British citizen unlawful."
Too bloody right. Massive congratulations to PRCBC whose work on this issue has been beyond impressive.
4/4 Please find our joint press release on today's judgment:
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Just heard of someone getting ~ £10k in costs against the SSHD in the FtT. So it really seems that they are going for it with these costs awards. Please everyone, make the HO pay for their incompetence, cruelty and time wasting in the conduct of these appeals...
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Refugees come here to seek safety from persecution, not to rely on public services
💼 "The Windrush generation get very upset when people conflate immigration with asylum because they were immigrants who came here to work, not to rely on public services.”
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The reviews are in!
"I’m pretty sure you have written the only comprehensive and helpful article on what the hell's going on"
(apparently my article is being referred to in some IMA training rn)
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"UNHCR provided evidence that almost all LGBTQ+ asylum seekers had left Rwanda due to an inability to progress their claims there and it identified a 100% refusal rate for Afghan, Syrian and Yemeni cases."
From The Guardian: How red flags were brushed aside to push through Rwanda deal
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Well this is total nonsense. If these people had been unable to get lawyers they would probably be in Rwanda now
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In the successful appeal I just tweeted about we relied heavily on the Home Office's own records as obtained via a Subject Access Request. No wonder they are seeking to deprive people of the opportunity to access these documents. Anything to make life as difficult as possible.
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Not detaining them.
"Being in detention does put stress on individuals." Immigration Minister
@carolinenokes
speaks about her determination to "look at what the alternatives to detention are."
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As long as the Tories are able to continue to utilise Corbyn in order to motivate their voters, we are all completely doomed. Labour are absolutely complicit in our current situation.
There are a million moving parts in the great wheel of horror that is our national crisis. But the most important cog is Corbyn's continued presence as leader of the opposition.
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I do like it when the HO grants my clients on a Friday, always a good way to end the week 🙌🏻
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Today is my Law Birthday! I am TEN YEARS OLD!!! Never thought I would make it in this career for this long, nor would I have if I hadn't been fortunate enough to work with two of the most fierce and intelligent women at such an early stage, and had them with me ever since.
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@IanDunt
Important petition here:
We are a movement. ✊
An incredible 30,000 people have signed the petition to get the barracks closed. Thank you.
We must keep making our voices heard & let those in the barracks know what Britain is really all about - love, kindness & compassion. ✊💕
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The thought of the UK's international aid budget going to Serco/Mitie etc really is sickening, and that the diversion of funds was "responsible for the “limited UK response” to the Pakistan floods in 2022 and developing famine in the Horn of Africa"
New from Free Movement: UK spends one third of international aid budget on domestic asylum costs
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New government, same Home Office. I wrote back in April about Vietnamese people being targeted. As with Albanians, many of these people will have been trafficked and are at risk of being re-trafficked if returned to their country.
Excl: The Home Office will use the first flight scheduled for Rwanda deportations on Wednesday to instead return failed asylum seekers to Vietnam:
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ILPA and Detention Action have today written to the Home Office, MoJ and LAA raising concerns about access to justice in relation to the operation of the detained duty advice scheme, ahead of tomorrow's charter flight.
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"A few days after the Guardian began making inquiries about the delay, the Home Office granted them all leave to remain."
To state the obvious, this is not how our immigration system should be operating.
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I have just booked flights to Australia. After two years of being locked out, I will finally be able to go see my family and meet my two new niece/nephews*
Feeling extremely emotional, this has been beyond awful 😭😭😭
*tbd imminently
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“Can the permanent secretary and seniors give staff any advice on coping with our conscience with these sort of policies? I don’t feel safe telling people I work for the Home Office any more and now just make up a nondescript role in another gov department when asked what I do”
From The Guardian: Home Office staff threaten mutiny over ‘shameful’ Rwanda asylum deal
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This one is a keeper for the next time a HO official tells me that a policy is under review.
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Some of these countries are dangerous for LGBTQI+ people, e.g. Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya are all countries where the UK grants refugee status to people claiming asylum based on their sexual orientation. Under this Bill, a gay man from Iran could end up being sent to e.g. Ghana
For nationals of all other countries, they can be only be removed to one of 57 countries listed in the Schedule to the bill, unless that country is their own country of origin. This means that, for example, an Afghan cannot be returned to Afghanistan, or a Syrian to Syria.
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This is so important, the combination of section 3c leave and the hostile environment has caused untold levels of hardship to countless people
BREAKING: Landmark Win! Court rules Home Secretary acting irrationally & in breach of children’s rights by failing to provide documents to thousands of migrants with lawful immigration status. Janet Farrell, Christina Bodenes & Erica San at BM act for
@RAMFELCharity
& Ms Adjei
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"He said that after conducting his first interview with a female asylum seeker who had been sobbing while giving a graphic account of abuse, managers “laughed” and told him to “get used to it”."
From The Independent: Home Office faces ‘exodus’ of asylum caseworkers who fear being forced to break law
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The unreported JR decision on that age assessment case is here:
The wonderful
@dongreene
was instructed
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Honestly the amount of random weirdness in the UK's parliamentary system is really off the charts. Just when you think you have sort of got the hang of it - something like this happens.
What just happened with the Kinnock amendment, and what does it all mean? I try to explain here:
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Boris on NRPF: "Clearly people who have worked hard for this country should have support of one kind or another. I will find out how many there are in that position and we will do what we can to help"
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"Some of the commercial lawyers, unused to handling refugee cases, say they have been shocked by the opaque nature of the application system and the length of the Home Office delays."
🤣
From The Guardian: Afghan judges hoping for UK asylum not treated consistently, say lawyers
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@alexvtunzelmann
On my train a man just removed his mask so that he could cough more effectively
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@IanDunt
You're in it, exciting! Although this by
@robfordmancs
was my favourite: "The lot of Brexiteers who are willing to work with Theresa May and aren’t bonkers is quite small". I can't stop laughing even though everything is terrible.
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Here it is, well said:
At 00.20 - look it up later - my colleague
@Paulscriven
gave magnificent vent to his feelings about the govt front bench contemptuously making us debate issues of life & liberty of vulnerable people at this hour of the night, ‘just to be able to wave red meat at the red wall’.
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"Alarming rise in people abusing the system"
"89% received a positive initial decision"
🤔
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IF WE HAD ANY BLOODY INFLUENCE THINGS WOULD NOT BE IN THIS STATE!!
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Many of us in the sector have known about that attack for weeks. For her to know about it and still have made that speech on Sunday is beyond reprehensible. The impact of all of this on us can't really be overstated.
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Ah yes, this one is a classic HO move:
"One person I met who was sent a letter telling her she was here unlawfully was advised to ring a number printed on the letter if she had any complaints. But there was no number printed on the letter."
The Go Home Office
The
#Windrush
scandal was produced by the unforgiving grind of one department's official machine. Here is how it happened.
Could EU nationals face similar treatment?
#EUSS
#EUCitizens
#SettlementScheme
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The vast majority of ECF applications are for immigration cases, and the vast majority of those applications are granted. The ECF process acts merely as a barrier to access to justice, and immigration should clearly be brought back into scope of legal aid
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Exactly. Putting almost everyone through inadmissibility, with practically nil chance of sending them anywhere (supposedly the point of the process) adds six months of delay and asylum support costs for no reason.
Good point by
@YvetteCooperMP
just now: the delays and backlog are actually being made *worse* by the Nationality and Borders Act and recent reforms.
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"He who laughs last has not yet heard the bad news." - Bertolt Brech
Another stellar quote at the top of
@Politics_co_uk
's Week in Review email, I don't think you see these in the article that goes up on the site later, so I definitely recommend signing up.
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The decision of the Supreme Court was "based on the dishonesty of UNHCR"
This is all going to go very well isn't it
'There's nothing wrong with the treaty, these guarantees already existed'
Nothing has changed in the government's new asylum deal with Rwanda, its government spokesperson tells
@PaulBrandITV
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Described by one barrister as "an early Christmas present".
"The Chief Inspector invites anyone with knowledge and experience of the Home Office’s Presenting Officer function to submit evidence for his next inspection."
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I helped a Japanese lawyer who somehow managed to find and reach out to me in November 2021 with some queries on a Ugandan LGBTQI+ asylum case.
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"As has become customary in such decisions, the decision begins with a lament about the amount of litigation generated by the statutory provisions concerned, which were introduced during Theresa May’s tenure as Home Secretary as a mechanism for restricting appeals."
New post: Important new judgment on KO (Nigeria) case and removing migrants with children in the UK
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Bleeding heck. Just had a phone call from the Home Office re: a Windrush client. Are they *actually* going to fix this quickly? I feel faint...
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Good to see coverage of fact that HO appear to be hiding numbers of those granted pre settled rather than settled status. Also worth pointing out (again) that phase 2 pilot report states that of 11 completed reviews of such decisions, 10 were successful.
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Excellent article. Worth remembering that HO are supposed to be conducting a review into the NRPF policy following concession of a judicial review earlier this year (). They do not appear to be asking for any input into the review from external stakeholders
Hostile gatekeeping: How the children of immigrants are driven into poverty
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"Fifteen miles of unshelved paperwork". Excuse me whilst I pour myself into a bottle of wine.
Absolutely devastating from
@Hargraver
on decades of basic incompetence at the Home Office
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Client got ILR 😭💕
(I was so worried when the HO asked for a load of unrelated docs at the last minute! I would love her to complain but no chance obvs)
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