Issue 5 November / December 2006 EIN HEADLEINs - FRONT PAGE EIN.ORG.UK From 006 to 007 "The stiffening corset of Refugee Qualification" EIN HIGHLIGHTS BULLETIN 2006, in the Immigration Law field, began with the introduction of the new Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act; later, it was the scene of the media eruption over the non-deportation of foreign criminals from British prisons and later the eruption of riots at the Harmondsworth Removal Centre. Year end sees a whole new crop of regulations and proposals, ranging from the introduction of the EU Refugee Qualification Directive, amendments and restrictions in advance of the entry of Romania and Bulgaria to the EU, new proposals for an Immigration 'Watchdog' body, proposals for compulsory biometric ID cards for all non-UK nationals in Britain and continuing deliberations on the reform of legal aid funding for immigration practitioners. 2007 sees the prospect of another Bill, focusing on border controls, removals and deportation of foreign prisoners (ironically at a moment when a fresh furore erupts over the non-registration of UK criminals returning from foreign prisons), a range of institutional changes to IND governance and the possibility of a further squeezing of ECHR and Refugee Convention protection and a squeezing of the funding for legal representation - meaning that free representation via the voluntary sector will become paramount. The gulf between public perceptions of lax immigration control and failures of removal and the practitioners view of the 'shifting goalposts' and legal hoops facing the refugee claimant could scarcely be much wider while public bewilderment or enmity towards the refugee process undoubtedly flourishes. International law itself is scarcely the daily currency of social exchange because Governments across Europe prefer to be seen as authors of their own Law and they are forced to be seen as 'in control'. In addition to the legal HIGHLIGHTS BULLETIN, this issue carries a number of features in the EIN public site, on aspects of the refugee determination process, including a summary of the Hathaway Day on 'Alienage' at the Law Society by Frances Webber and further abstracts from the Durham University conference on 'Immigration, Asylum and Human Rights' (See below for links to all features)     The core of each issue of EIN HEADLEINs is the HIGHLIGHTS BULLETIN, linking to the members site for legal updates in caselaw, statutory instruments, immigration rules and selected key country reports highlighted in the HJT/ICCID country information database within the EIN. In this issue, the country highlights include Russia, Iraq, Lebanon and Zimbabwe and also links to all the latest IND country reports, in the ICCID database. The Bulletin also carries links to some of the key reports and announcements of the recent period on issues such as legal aid reform, approaches to refugee integration and the introduction of language tests for ILR applications. The legislation section of the bulletin contains a number of new statutory instruments, mostly emanating from the entry of Romania and Bulgaria to the European Union, with implications also for the 'Sectors Based Scheme' and the 'Highly Skilled Migrants Progaramme' The caselaw section includes selected highlights up to mid december 2006, including important judgments on free movement and secondary rights of family members within the EU such as W(China) and X(China) [2006] EWCA Civ 1494, and number of key cases on entry clearance and new AIT Country Guideline cases such as WA (Draft related risks updated - Muslim Women) Eritrea CG [2006] UKIAT 00079 and OM (AA(1) wrong in law) Zimbabwe CG [2006] UKAIT 00077. Each case in the Bulletin links to the Caselaw Highlights Bulletin Supplement, produced especially for appellant representatives, the judiciary, government departments, case researchers and academics,carrying headnotes, some brief, some quite expansive, on each of the key cases. Each case also links to the full text in the caselaw database. Please send comments, contributions, suggestions and especially news of developments in voluntary sector representation, for future EIN HEADLEINs to the Editor, EIN.   IN BRIEF HEADLEINs FEATURES IN THE EIN PUBLIC SITE FORTHCOMING: HUMAN RIGHTS LAW UPDATE 2007 The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn - European Programme - Mon 19th Feb-Thurs 22nd Feb - Lecture Series on recent human rights case law - with Dr Hans Christian Kruger (Former Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe) and Parosha Chandran (1 Pump Court) NEW PUBLICATIONS (2006/2007) THE IMMIGRATION RULES - Annotated, on EIN, including latest changes, necessitated by the entry of Romania and Bulgaria to the EU IAS LAW DIGEST: latest issue, Winter 2006 - containing essays by Zahir Chowdhury on 'A Retreat from Porportionality - the Court of Appeal Decision in HUANG'and by Lord Justice Sedley on 'The Use of False Documents by Asylum-Seekeres' - email to order as single issue (£25) "Misjudging Rape: Breaching Gender Guidlines and International Law in Asylum Appeals" A Dossier - published jointly by Black Women’s Rape Action Project (BWRAP) and Women Against Rape (WAR): To order - Tel 0207 482 2496 or email: war@womenagainstrape.net Anthony Good - Anthropology and Expertise in the Asylum courts (Routledge, Cavendish) Legal Foundations of Tribunals in Nineteenth Century England - by Chantal Stebbings (CUP) Law, Infrastructure and Human Rights - by Michael Likosky (CUP) Immigration and the Transformation of Europe Eds. Craig A. Parsons & Timothy M. Smeeding WEB PAGE UPDATES TO THE 'TEXTBOOK ON IMMIGRATION AND ASYLUM LAW' - 2nd Edition, by Gina Clayton, on the website of the Oxford University Press. Your Right to Know - 2nd Edition: A Citizen's Guide to the Freedom of Information Act - by Heather Brooke, Pluto Press 2007 THE EIN BOOK PRIZE QUIZ - ROLLOVER! There were no winners of the Issue 4 book prizes - and so again, the prizes are: "Can Human Rights survive?" by Conor Gearty (CUP 2006), and,"Bloody Foreigners: The Story of Immigration to Britain" by Robert Winder (Little, Brown, 2004) And the questions are...... POST-PRODUCTION HIGHLIGHTS:key cases DK (Serbia) [2006] EWCA Civ 1747 HB (Ethiopia) [2006] EWCA Civ 1713 SK (FGM – ethnic groups) Liberia CG [2007] UKAIT 00001 SK (illegal entrant: leave to enter) Nigeria [2007] UKAIT 00003 (Links to EIN caselaw database) IN THE NEXT ISSUE OF HEADLEINSs: Dr Robert Thomas (University of Manchester) on Assessing Asylum and Immigration Determination Processes, Sarah Craig & Pauline Aaron (University of Glasgow) on Reviewing the AIT in Scotland Oliver Windridge on Extradition to the USA Links to Previous issues of EIN HEADLEINS     "When did you last see your passport?"   ALIENAGE NOT AN ALIEN CONCEPT IN REFUGEE LAW - by FRANCES WEBBER   A summary from the 'Hathaway Day' at the Law Society on the 'Requirement of Alienage' under the Refugee Convention and questions such as the implications of 'illegal entry' and 'statelessness' - held also in aid of the Inderpal Rahal Memorial Trust. Link to summary   ABOUT THE MEDICAL FOUNDATION NORTH EAST by ALAN BRICE The work of the Newcastle office of the Medical Foundation, dedicated to the medical support and representation of torture victims and developing relations with primary care mental health practitioners working with refugees and asylum seekers at Newcastle Primary Care NHS Trust. Link to report   ON 'ASYLUM, MIGRATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS: MORE ABSTRACTS FROM THE NEWCASTLE CONFERENCE   The conference was organised jointly by the University of Durham and the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture: Issue 4 of HEADLEINs carried the first series of abstracts. In this issue, four more - on aspects of refugee determination, and refusal, and a timely resume (around the 5th anniversary of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp) of the lawlessness of the rendition phenomenon, the risks to protection of 'diplomatic assurances' and a detailed bibliography. "Persecution for Reasons of Religion under the 1951 Convention - an Anthropological Approach" by Professor Anthony Good (University of Edinburgh) "The 'Reasonable Persecutor' in Asylum Appeals" by Dr James Sweeney (University of Durham) "Credibility under the 2004 Immigration Act" by Dr Jonathan Ensor (IAS Research) "Extraordinary Rendition" by Suzanne Egan (University College Dublin)   BOOK REVIEWS   "Who Believes in Human Rights? 2006 Marie-Bénédicte Dembour (Cambridge University Press) A review by Gina Clayton, author of the 'Textbook on Immigration and Asylum Law': "Demonstrating the relevance of Human Rights Theory" "Bloody foreigners" by Robert Winder A review by John F Kelly (Director, HJT/ICCID Country Information Database): "The 'knotted ethnic roots' of modern Britain"   Acknowledgements 'HEADLEINs' is published by EIN: www.ein.org.uk and made possible by the financial support from the charitable trusts of Lloyds TSB and the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, to whom special thanks are owed. HEADLEINs Editor: John Dean/Editor,EIN Technical & Design Co-ordinator: Les Mugridge Editorial Board: Gail Elliman, Mark Symes, Clyde James, George Brown, Tim Eicke, Dallal Stevens, Louis Julienne Special Contributors: For this issue, thanks especially to Frances Webber (Garden Court) John F Kelly (HJT/ICCID), Maggie Crabtree (for EIN), Mark Symes (Garden Court), Alan Brice (MF NE) & Gina Clayton Special thanks also to Cambridge University Press for their generous donations to the 'HEADLEINs Book Prize' Disclaimer: The materials and information provided on the EIN website are provided "as is." No warranty of any kind, implied, expressed, or statutory, including freedom from computer virus, is given with respect to the contents of this web site or its links to other Internet resources.