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Immigration and Asylum in the United Kingdom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 April 2010

David McClean
David McClean
Affiliation:
Chancellor of the Diocese of Sheffield
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Abstract

This piece offers an account of the law relating to immigration and asylum, especially as it affects ministers of religion and those who give religious reasons for seeking asylum. Beside Nicholas Coulton's passionate advocacy,1 this paper must seem bloodless and even unfeeling. It is a revised version of part of a paper for the European Consortium on Church and State Research, an essentially ‘black-letter’ account of one country's national law constructed to a template that enabled comparisons to be drawn. It began with the observation that United Kingdom immigration law is of daunting complexity; only some limited aspects can be addressed here.

Type
Articles
Information
Ecclesiastical Law Journal , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , May 2010 , pp. 152 - 161
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical Law Society 2010

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References

2 Formally cited as HC (for House of Commons Paper) 395 (1994) as (much) amended; a consolidated version is maintained on the website of the UK Borders Agency.

3 Immigration Rules, r 245ff.

4 The youth mobility scheme is limited to Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand (Immigration Rules, App G) and replaced a much wider working holiday scheme much used by young people and having no such geographical limitation.

5 The rules governing sponsorship are not set out in the Immigration Rules but are set administratively by the UK Borders Agency.

6 Immigration Rules, r 245ZB and App A, paras 59–84.

7 The list changes from time to time, but in 2009 included certain engineering and healthcare posts, veterinary surgeons, teachers and social workers.

8 Essentially this means that the job must be advertised to persons already settled in the UK and it be shown that no suitable person was found.

9 No provision seems to be made for other forms of doctorate.

10 £20,000 equalled €22,750 at the time of writing.

11 Immigration Rules, App A, para 113ff.

12 €8,200.

13 Immigration Rules, App C, paras 1–13.

14 Immigration Rules, App A, paras 85–92.

15 Parliamentary Debates (Lords) 25 November 2008, cols 1418ff.

16 ie equivalent to the Council of Europe level B2 as opposed to the usual Level C1.

17 Asylum Statistics 2008 (Home Office Statistical Bulletin 11/08).

18 In the first quarter of 2009, the refusal rate was only 59%. It is not clear if this represents a trend to a more generous approach.

19 Immigration Rules, r339C.

20 See Immigration Rules, r 327ff.

21 [2004] UKIAT 00303.

22 [2008] UKAIT 00082.

23 [2004] SCLR 608. See also an earlier Scottish decision, Archer v Secretary of State for the Home Department, 2001 Scot (D) 15/11 (Christian persecuted in Northern Nigeria; asylum refused on ground of possible internal flight to Southern Nigeria).

24 [2004] UKHL 26, [2004] 2 AC 323.

25 The House noted Razaghi v Sweden (Application No 64599/01) (unreported) 11 March 2003, which suggested that article 9 was irrelevant in this context but held that the judgment was not clear on the point.

26 Asylum Support Regulations 2000, SI 2000/704 as most recently amended by the Asylum Support (Amendment) Regulations 2008, SI 2008/760.

27 The Children's Society, Living on the Edge of Despair (London, 2008)Google Scholar.

28 D Taylor/Positive Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers, Underground Lives (Leeds, 2009)Google Scholar.

29 See N Coulton, ‘Asylum Justice Matters’, note 1 above, at pages 176–177.