Asylum Update – 31st March 2008

IAC report
The Independent Asylum Commission has released its interim findings with widespread media coverage. Executive summary here
See BBC and Daily Mail reports.
ICAR briefings for the Commission here
New asylum model
Research carried out by Bail for Immigration Detainees on the one year anniversary of the New Asylum Model concludes that “asylum claims heard in detention [...]

Iraqi interpreters and resettlement

The Home Office has revealed a resettlement plan for 2,000 Iraqis that had been involved with providing assistance to the British Army over the last five years. This represents some success those campaigning on behalf of these individuals yet the criteria attached to the way in which the resettled will be selected raises questions about [...]

Asylum Update – 26th March 2008

UNHCR
New publications include
- Asylum levels and trends in industrialized countries (2007). Shows a rise in asylum applications to industrialized countries for first time in five years, largely due to increase in Iraqi applicants.
- compilation of case law on refugee protection in international law. Brings together 70 of the most important judgments/decisions.
- country updates from [...]

Asylum Update – 17th March 2008

Female asylum seekers
This report by Asylum Aid, the European Women’s Lobby and the Refugee Women’s Resource argues for gender guidelines to implement the EU qualification directive and the asylum procedures directive.
Border controls
A new report from the European Council on Refugees and Exiles examines the impact of tighter EU border controls on the ability of refugees [...]

Defining Britishness

Last night, Bernard Crick and Anne Phillips spoke at the LSE on Britishness and ‘British values’. If you are familiar with the work of either you will not have been surprised about the content of proceedings. Crick laboured, with validity, the point about the historically multi-national nature of Britain and the confusion this has caused; [...]

Climate change and migration

This time it is the turn of the EU to offer warnings of the migration effects of climate change. Two senior foreign policy advisors have suggested that Europe needs to brace itself for what the Guardian confusingly calls ‘a new kind of refugee – the environmental migrant’.
I have discussed at length the legal complexity and [...]

Asylum Update – 10th March 2008

Return and torture
The European Court on Human Rights has reasserted the absolute nature of Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights in its ruling in the Saadi v. Italy case. See press release and Amnesty comment. During the proceedings the UK had argued that in cases of national security, states should be allowed [...]