Challenging unfairness in the immigration system

NOW THE LIVE EVENT HAS FINISHED YOU CAN PURCHASE ACCESS TO THE RECORDED SESSIONS AT 75%  OF THE LIVE EVENT FEE>  Please contact [email protected].  

Due to the importance of the Supreme Court Rwanda judgment, we are asking panels to address the judgment’s impact, including on other policies and legislation such as the Illegal Migration Act.

BOOKINGS remain open during the event but please note that they may not be processed until next day, so we cannot guarantee live event access until a day after you have booked, though will endeavor to process any bookings as soon as we can regardless!

The immigration system is now more complex and punitive than ever. This event is for those seeking to challenge discrimination and unfairness in immigration, using strategic legal, research and policy work.

PLP are presenting this series of seminars in partnership with Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA), the Strategic Legal Advice Committee (SLAC), and the Strategic Legal Fund (SLF). 

The 6 seminars are presented online  as 1 or 1.5 hour sessions (9.5 hours in total) split over 4 days.
All sessions are recorded so attendees can access after the event.

Learning objectives:

• Identify avenues of strategic challenge in the immigration system
• Source funding for immigration challenges, especially in light of the lack of legal aid support in the sector
• Learn from case studies of discrimination cases in the immigration system
• Understand how exceptionalism creates unfairness

Who is it for?

• Lawyers and advisers across immigration, human rights and public law
• Those working on immigration policy
• Frontline immigration organisations

Ticketing:

• Free places available to those that need them:
  – Those without sufficient training budgets, or from very small organsiations, or volunteers.
  – Please contact [email protected] if you require free tickets
  
• Standard price (private practitioners, governmental and regulatory bodies, academics): £99
• Discounted (NGO/charity/voluntary sector, trainees within 2 years PQE/call, pupil barristers, sole practitioners, retired and unemployed practitioners): £80
• Advisers: £60
• Students (only intended for those in full-time education and making the booking using a valid university email address): £20

November 21st

10:00-11:30: Immigration exceptionalism – an introduction
How and why is immigration being ‘exempt’ from traditional governmental and judicial oversight, allowing executive overreach into traditionally legislative powers? What impact does this have?

• Chair: Lee Marsons, Public Law Project
• Dr Monish Bhatia, University of York
• Dr Jo Hynes, Public Law Project
• Pierre Makhlouf, Bail for Immigration Detainees
• Colin Yeo, Freemovement

14:00-15:30: Identifying and challenging discrimination in the immigration system
The panel will consider case studies identifying and challenging discrimination in the immigration system and ask what we can learn from them. The case studies include: nationality discrimination, gender discrimination, race discrimination, and more.

• Chair: Allan Cerim, Brick Court Chambers
• Nick Armstrong KC, Matrix Chambers
• Dr Maya Goodfellow, University College London
• Nath Gbikpi, Leigh Day

November 22nd

14:00-15:30: Delays in asylum decisions
Why are asylum and family reunion decisions delayed? What are the consequences of delay on the lives of refugees, and what can be done to challenge delays and assist refugees? The session will include discussion of the recently launched legal challenge by Asylum Aid arguing that the Home Office is acting unlawfully by failing to make asylum decisions as soon as possible, and to provide reliable time frames for decisions.

• Chair: Neena Acharya
• Rhys Clyne, Institute for Government
• Nadia O’Mara, Garden Court Chambers
• Alison Pickup, Asylum Aid

November 23rd

10:00-11:30: Strategic legal challenges
This session looks at identifying and evidencing strategic legal challenges in immigration.

• Sonal Ghelani, Migrants’ Law Project
• Clare Jennings, GoldJennings
• Rakesh Singh, Public Law Project
• Olivia Duffield, Deighton Pierce Glynn

November 24th

10:00-11:30: Funding
How to fund challenges, especially strategic legal challenges to immigration law and policy?  This session will look at legal aid, including  Exceptional Case Funding (ECF), costs and costs capping, crowd funding and more.

• Chair: Antony Whittaker, Whittaker’s Legal Costs
• Charles Bishop, Landmark Chambers
• Siobhan Foulner, Wilsons LLP
• Emily Soothill, Deighton Pierce Glynn

13:15-13:45: Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration

• Harriet Ditton, Gary Slevin, and Rachael Wood

14:00-15:30: How can the immigration system be made more humane?

• Chair: Ben Amunwa, 36 Bedford Row
• Zoe Bantleman, ILPA
• Fatou Cham Gitteh, Ubuntu Glasgow
• Adam Straw KC, Doughty Street Chambers
• Julia Tinsley-Kent, Migrants’ Rights Network

This training is presented in partnership with ILPA, SLAC and SLF.

Please note that all bookings are processed manually by our Events Team and it may take 2-3 business days for you to receive your booking confirmation.

Should you have any queries about this programme or training, please email Amelie Godfrey.