13. Exclusion from asylum

Course-focused and comprehensive, the Textbook on series provides an accessible overview of the key areas on the law curriculum. This chapter considers the provisions whereby an individual can be excluded from refugee status because of their conduct. These are as laid down in the Refugee Convention and the EC Qualification Directive. The chapter discusses up-to-date case law on exclusion from refugee status based on crimes against humanity, serious non-political crimes, and acts against the purpose and principles of the United Nations. It deals with the issue of complicity and the relationship with the UK’s anti-terrorism legislation. It also deals with the situations in which refugees can be removed from the host country.

10. Visitors: entry for temporary purposes

Course-focused and comprehensive, the Textbook on series provides an accessible overview of the key areas on the law curriculum. This chapter discusses the law relating to individuals coming to the UK as visitors for short-term or finite purposes such as tourism, business visits, sporting and entertainment engagements, or for private medical treatment. There is a discussion of the withdrawal, reinstatement, and restriction of rights of appeal for those visiting family members in the UK, and the application of Article 8 ECHR to these situations. The revised visitor rules in Appendix V are described in detail. The chapter also discusses the special cases of marriage visitors, carers and transit visitors, and general conditions such as prohibited activities and the need for maintenance and accommodation.

16. Removal

Course-focused and comprehensive, the Textbook on series provides an accessible overview of the key areas on the law curriculum. This chapter describes the development of the grounds in law for exercising the power to remove a person from the UK, from the Immigration Act 1971to Immigration Act 2014. These include people who have overstayed the limit of their leave, or have breached conditions of leave or obtained leave to remain by deception, and the families of such people. The chapter also examines the practical obstacles to removal. These are often as important to the individual as the legal ones.

14. Detention

Course-focused and comprehensive, the Textbook on series provides an accessible overview of the key areas on the law curriculum. This chapter focuses on the issue of immigration detention. The deprivation of liberty is one of the most serious infringements of fundamental human rights. In immigration law, individuals lose their liberty through the exercise of a statutory discretion by the Home Office or immigration officers. The chapter considers the statutory powers and executive guidelines, together with human rights and common law rules. The use of detention is an increasingly common phenomenon in the asylum process, and the key role of immigration bail is examined. The former use of indefinite detention for foreign terrorist suspects is discussed at the end of the chapter.

8. Family life

Course-focused and comprehensive, the Textbook on series provides an accessible overview of the key areas on the law curriculum. This chapter focuses on non-European Economic Area (EEA) nationals who wish to live permanently with family members who are settled in or are nationals of the UK. The family members of those coming to work or study and of refugees are also briefly considered. It examines marriage-related applications, that is, applications to join a spouse, fiancé(e), civil or long-term partner. It considers the rules relating to adult family members and children; the family life of those with limited leave; refugees and asylum seekers.

7. Challenging decisions: appeals, administrative and judicial review

Course-focused and comprehensive, the Textbook on series provides an accessible overview of the key areas on the law curriculum. This chapter discusses the structure of the appeals bodies—the Appeal Tribunal and the Special Immigration Appeals Commission—and their procedure and jurisdiction. It sets out the limited rights of appeal following implementation of the Immigration Act 2014. It has a section on administrative review. It concludes with a section on immigrants and asylum seekers’ access to legal representation.

6. Crossing the border and leave to remain

Course-focused and comprehensive, the Textbook on series provides an accessible overview of the key areas on the law curriculum. This chapter is concerned with the legal processes of crossing the border to enter the UK and the stages at which that crossing is encountered before and on arrival. It discusses the extra-territorial powers of immigration officers and the role of new technologies as characteristics of an increasingly diffuse, intelligence-based, and security-oriented system. It describes the role and powers of entry clearance officers and immigration officers, including the power to discriminate, and considers the general grounds for refusal of leave or entry clearance. It presents a brief account of some offences which may be committed in the course of entry. Also discussed are the Common Travel Area (CTA), the grant of leave, and how the most secure immigration status of settlement may be achieved.

12. Claims for international protection

Course-focused and comprehensive, the Textbook on series provides an accessible overview of the key areas on the law curriculum. This chapter examines the requirements for refugee status, according to Article 1A of the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees 1951 and the Refugee Qualification Directive EC 2004/83, referred to as the Qualification Directive. This includes case law on the main concepts in refugee law: well-founded fear, persecution, Convention reason, causal link, and internal relocation. There is a focus on the particular problems in gender-based claims. The chapter considers protection for victims of trafficking, who may go through a parallel process to the asylum system.

11. The asylum process

Course-focused and comprehensive, the Textbook on series provides an accessible overview of the key areas on the law curriculum. This chapter describes the asylum process from application through to cessation of refugee status. The first two sections deal with entering the UK to claim asylum, and with the asylum application and decision-making; the third with the different routes through which an asylum claim can be processed, including ‘safe’ country of origin provisions and non-suspensive appeals, and returns to third countries pursuant to the Dublin Regulation. The fourth section concerns penalties connected with seeking asylum. The final sections cover remedies for victims of trafficking, and other procedures after appeal rights are exhausted, or asylum has been granted.

9. Entry for work, business, and study: the points-based system

Course-focused and comprehensive, the Textbook on series provides an accessible overview of the key areas on the law curriculum. This chapter deals with the law relating to entry for work, self-employment, and study. These are the areas covered by the points-based system (PBS), which was implemented from 2008. The chapter is organized around the five tiers of the PBS but makes reference to some of the old rules as well as provides some historical perspective. It also considers those few schemes remaining outside the PBS, including the conditions attached to migrant domestic workers and the problems and risks they face. Briefly, the chapter discusses illegal working.