News
The fate of the Isle of Man's first asylum seeker could lie in the hands of Lieutenant Governor Vice-Admiral Sir Paul Haddacks. As the Island is not treated as a state for the purposes of the Refugee Convention and has no legislation to deal with a claimant, it cannot provide asylum in its own right. Read more
The immigration detention centre at StanstedAirport has failed to provide "basic standards of decency and safety", according to a new report. The unit is one of four short-term sites that have been criticised for having "systematic deficits" by the Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers, meaning they are unsuitable for holding children or for overnight stays. Luton airport, the reporting centre at Waterside Court in Leeds, and Portsmouth ferry port, are the other three centres. Read more
The Glasgow Evening Times reported that dozens of vulnerable children of asylum seekers in Glasgow are being uprooted from their schools and moved to the other side of the city. The families are among the first to be switched to new accommodation in Sighthill by YMCA Glasgow which now holds part of the city's asylum housing contract. Read more
Country Information
Human Rights Watch argued that Iran should immediately remove Tehran's notoriously abusive prosecutor general from its delegation to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. The prosecutor general, Saeed Mortazavi has been implicated in torture, illegal detention, and coercing false confessions by numerous former prisoners. Read more
Human Rights Watch also noted that the Afghan government should immediately revoke a recently promulgated directive restricting the freedom of the press. On June 12 and 19, Afghanistan's intelligence agency, the National Security Directorate (NSD), distributed a list of restrictions to Afghan journalists demanding that they curtail their reporting on the country's deteriorating security situation. Read more
Cases
In RM (Young Chechen Male, Risk, IFA) Russia CG [2006] UKAIT 00050 (12 June 2006) the AIT found that a young Chechen male will not as such be at real risk of persecution or a breach of Article 3 either on return to Russia, or on the rail link to Chechnya, or in Chechnya, and, as an alternative, has a viable internal relocation option in Ingushetia. However a Chechen, who is recorded as wanted by the Russian authorities in connection with or for supporting the rebels in Chechnya, will be at real risk on return at Moscow or St PetersburgAirports, and anywhere else in the Russian Federation.
Click here to read the judgement
In Domi v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2006] EWHC 1314 (Admin) (07 June 2006) the Administrative Court took account of the merits of a human rights claim in granting a very late extension of time for the filing of the claim form.
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