UK Human Rights Act is to be abolished

The UK Human Rights Act is to be abolished and replaced by a British Bill of Rights by the new Government, the Justice Secretary, Liz Truss said.

The British Bill of Rights will be introduced, despite speculation that the Government is planning to shelve the election pledge, Liz Truss told BBC Radio 4’s today programme.

There is speculation that Prime Minister Theresa May is concerned about the proposals as a concession agreed by the previous government that Britain would remain signed up to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Former Prime Minister David Cameron’s government said that the British Bill of Rights would replace the controversial Human Rights Act, which has led to the Home Office being left unable to deport criminals and suspected terrorists, due to appeals to the court on human rights or grounds such as the article 8 ‘right to a family life’ in the UK.

The Bill of Rights was drawn up by Michael Gove, the former justice secretary who lost his job during Mrs May’s reshuffle.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman previously said: “We will set out our proposals for a Bill of Rights in due course. We will consult fully on our proposals.”

The news came as Mrs May has hit back at Jean-Claude Juncker's claim that borders are the "worst invention ever made" by politicians.

UK Prime Minister, Mrs Theresa May

UK Immigration Figures

In total, 630,000 people moved to the UK in the year ending December 2015. Statistically this is a minor increase on 2014.

Net immigration of European Union (EU) citizens is estimated as 184,000 in the YE December 2015. An increase from 2014’s total of 174,000 is largely due to a rise in immigration from Romania and Bulgaria.

The number of migrants from countries outside the EU remained steady at 188,000 over the same period.

Of these, 308,000 people immigrated for work, an increase of 30,000 from the previous year and the highest estimate on record. Of these, 178,000 (58%) had a definite job to go to.

While the true extent of illegal migration to the UK is unknown, the volume of people claiming asylum has reached its highest level for 14 years.

Total applications in the 12 months to March 2016 were 41,563 (including dependents) - up 30% on the year before. This is actually relatively low compared to other EU countries - the UK ranks ninth out of 28.

The highest number were from Iran (4,811), followed by Pakistan (3,511), Iraq (3,374), Eritrea (3,340) and Afghanistan (3,133).

Source: Office for National Statistics, May 2016

The devil will be in the detail when it comes to scrapping the Human Rights Act, introduced by the Blair government in 1998, particularly if the UK remains part of ECHR, which will allow people to lodge appeals against the UK government.

The Human Rights Act 1998, into force in the UK in October 2000, sets out the fundamental rights and freedoms that everyone in the UK is entitled to.

In practice, the Act has three main effects:

1. It incorporates the rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into domestic British law. This means that if your human rights have been breached, you can take your case to a British court rather than having to seek justice from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.
2. It requires all public bodies (like courts, police, local authorities, hospitals and publicly funded schools) and other bodies carrying out public functions to respect and protect your human rights.
3. In practice, it means that Parliament will nearly always seek to ensure that new laws are compatible with the rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights (although ultimately Parliament is sovereign and can pass laws which are incompatible). The courts will also where possible interpret laws in a way which is compatible with Convention rights.

Source: Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Whilst the Human Rights Act guarantees rights for UK citizens, it has become unpopular in the wake of controversial decisions to allow criminals and suspected terrorists to remain in the UK despite attempts to deport them by the Home Office, previously run by Theresa May.

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UK BREXIT Deal Could Slam Door on EEA Non-EU Partner Loophole

The United Kingdom is facing one of the most important decisions in decades, as voters decide whether to stay ‘in or out’ of the European Union in an EU referendum this June.

UK Prime Minister wants us to remain in the EU, but the so-called reform package has not convinced many senior Conservatives, such as London Mayor Boris Johnson, that a British EU exit or BREXIT is not in the country’s best interests.

In a bid to reassure the public that remaining inside a reformed EU, David Cameron recently announced a series of concessions from EU Ministers following intense negotiations including  reduced Child Benefit for EU nationals sending money home to their absent children, protection for the pound outside the Euro currency and no further part in EU expansion. However, the deal falls short of promised reforms and, crucially, the all important ‘free movement’ rights remains non-negotiable.

In his speech, Mr Cameron also mentioned an important proposed change to the “unfair advantage” EEA nationals have over British citizens when bringing their non-EU dependants into the UK.

The proposed removal of this free movement right has not been reported in the mainstream press, despite the fact that it could be one of the most important reforms Mr Cameron has squeezed out of the tight fisted European bureaucrats.

The loophole allows EEA nationals to override UK Immigration Rules when entering the UK with their non-EU family members based on landmark ECHR human rights judgements.

If implement by the EU, the change Treaty Regulations will mean that EEA nationals will be subject to the same restrictions as UK citizens, including the Minimum Income Requirement (MIR). But in order to achieve this, the 2006 European Regulations will have to be changed, with the agreement of member states.

The Supreme Court is considering legal challenges to Home Office Immigration Rules that require a UK sponsor to have a minimum gross annual income of £18,600 before they can apply for partners from non-EEA (European Economic Area) states to join them.

The immigration appeal cases have gone all the way through appeals to the highest court in the land and include judicial review applications brought by two British citizens (as well as a challenge to the tough Appendix FM rules), referred to as AM and SJ, who cannot meet the minimum income requirement and MM, a refugee from the Lebanon in a similar position, and his nephew AF.

Until the rules are amended by Europe, EU citizen marrying a non-EU citizen will find it far easier to come and live in the UK with their partner than a British citizen.

Using the same EEA rules, they can bring extended family dependants into the UK, a right that UK citizens do not enjoy.

Bizarrely, a British citizen must go and live in an EEA member state before they can be treated as EEA nationals with the same free movement rights.

Meanwhile, NHS hospitals in the UK and Irish hospitals are recruiting nurses from the EU and countries like the Philippines in a desperate bid to fill UK nursing vacancies. The NHS is creaking at the seams with staff shortages and an unhappy workforce. Juniors Doctors even went on strike recently over changes to their pay package.

Tier 2 Work Permits and full working visas are available for non-EU trained Filipino Nurses living in the UK or overseas. Hospitals and Nursing Homes are paying generous salaries and allowances to Nurses, as they desperately need staff.

In order to work as a nurse in the UK, you must achieve a minimum IELTS score of 7.00 in all bands and pass the NMC Part 1 online test. Whilst this is proving difficult for some candidates, the system is actually more straightforward than the old 0NP adaptation programme it replaced. My tip is to prepare for the test like you would for any other exam. Read IELTS study guides or attend classes, as this is not an easy English test.

Southern and Northern Ireland also needs more nurses, so now is the time to apply and take that IELTS test!

This is a window of opportunity for nurses who want to work in the UK or Ireland - and it will not stay open for long.

If you are an overseas nurse or a European care worker (EU citizens only) and would like to work in the UK, email your CV.

150,000 Tier 4 student notifications of change backlog allowed thousands to overstay visas

John Vine, the Chief Inspector of immigration, admits that the UK Border Agency (UKBA) has a backlog of 150,000 ‘notifications about changes in Tier 4 students circumstances’ sent to them by colleges and universities, which means they do not know who has left the country and who has overstayed their visas. The latest UKBA fiasco, reveled in the latest Chief Inspector’s report this week, has allowed thousands of overseas students to potentially overstay in Britain when they should have had their visas curtailed. Mr Vine, has confirmed that at the time of his inspection in May there was a backlog of over 150,000 notifications about changes in students' circumstances, which includes discontinuing studies, failing to enrol on their courses or breaching the conditions of their visas. In John Vine’s report, published this week, Vine says: "As a result, there could potentially be thousands of migrants in the UK who were not complying with the conditions of their visa and whose leave should have been curtailed by the agency but had not been. "One senior manager informed us that at the time of the inspection there were potentially 26,000 students whose leave should have been curtailed and who should have had enforcement action taken against them." The backlog of notifications about changes in the circumstances of overseas students dates back to March 2009 when Tier 4 of the five tier points based system was launched. The problem with Tier 4 is that although it was supposed to be a fully computerised system, it was actually launched as a paper based manual system. Many commentators say ill-prepared points system has ended in tears. Visas were dished out all too easily and non-compliant students reported by the colleges were allowed to overstay their visas. Private colleges have long been aware that change of circumstance reports, such as a student dropping out of a course, sent to the UKBA are rarely even acknowledged let alone acted upon. Now the UKBA is spending millions of pounds of tax payers money employing private companies to track them down – shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. Why didn’t the UKBA deal with them when they had their addresses at the time they were reported? Meanwhile UKBA bosses pay themselves massive bonuses, which the Chairman of Home Affairs Select Committee Keith Vaz MP says should be repaid following reports that UKBA officers misled Parliament over another backlog of asylum cases. The UKBA launched ‘Operation Mayapple’ (which sounds like something out of a Bond movie) last May to “identify” student who could still be in the UK and not complying with their Tier 4 visa conditions. ‘Operation Rosehip’ was launched by the at the same time to target students who should have left Britain. As a result 23,000 students had been ordered to comply with their student visas or face enforcement action. Responding to the report, the Immigration Minister, Mark Harper, said: "We are the first government to tackle the historically high levels of abuse in the student visa system. We have toughened the rules to ensure that genuine students are not taken advantage of by organisations looking to sell immigration not education. "At the same time, we have a great offer for the brightest and best international talent who want to study at our world class institutions." Labour's Shadow Immigration Minister, Chris Bryant, said this is yet another damning report about the UKBA and a scandalous situation. Bryant conveniently failed to mention that Labour introduced the points based system and were in power when the backlog of overstayers built up. Cynthia Barker of immigration advisers Concept Care Solutions has helped over-staying students who were arrested and detained pending removal orders. One Nigerian university student client, who had never been in trouble, spent 80 days detained in prison conditions, refused bail, sharing cells with convicted criminals and terror suspects. She said: “Young students from good families are intimidated by the experience of being detained and feel pressured into leaving voluntarily or are scared to seek legal advice. “Some clients leave voluntarily when they had a right to appeal or stay in the UK, for instance because they are in a relationship and have children. “Visa overstayers can avoid removal if they have an EEA partner. In this case we managed to pull him off a deportation flight ten minutes before take off because he was in a genuine relationship, and therefore a human right to a family life under article 8, with his Eastern European girlfriend.” If you have overstayed your visa or need any immigration advice or are worried about the new immigration rules or need help with Sponsorship or Tier 2, Tier 4, applying for university if your college has closed down, Visa, ILR, Settlement, Citizenship, Dependent Visa or an appeal against a UK Border Agency or British Embassy refusal, or if you have been waiting for a reply from the Home Office for longer than a year, please email immigration@londonccs.com or visit http://conceptcaresolutions.com/page.php?id=15