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The Migrants' Law Project

A legal and public legal education project, hosted by Islington Law Centre.

  • About The MLP
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    • Safe Passage International v SSHD [2021]
    • Family reunion, including for separated children in camps in Europe
    • Adult Dependent Relatives Rule
    • Asylum Support Rates – Refugee Action
    • Delays to Section 4 Support for destitute asylum seekers – MK and AH vs SSHD [2012]
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    • Removals to Greece – NS (Saeedi) [2011]
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Safe Passage International v SSHD [2021]

The Migrants’ Law Project represented Safe Passage International in a successful legal challenge to Home Office policy on deciding family reunion applications under the EU’s rules. The High Court found that the policies were unlawful and misstated the law in significant ways. 

Over 500 unaccompanied child refugees in Europe had applications to join family members under Dublin III rejected last year, leaving them stranded during a global pandemic. Although these EU rules are no longer in force post-Brexit, these children are now able to ask for their cases to be re-considered by the Home Office.

The policy was found unlawful because it instructed case-workers to refuse applications simply because they had failed to complete the necessary enquiries in time to meet the deadlines under the EU’s rules. It was also unlawful in its instructions to case-workers not to obtain local authority assessments of family members in the UK unless the Home Office was satisfied there was a genuine family relationship, despite the fact that these assessments frequently helped case–workers in deciding that critical issue.  

The full judgment can be found here.

RELEASE Safe Passage Family Reunion Judgement FINAL

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