Search

Search:

News

Latest News

• NEW BID Travel Document Project briefing on 'Cooperation & Removability', including practical steps, and criminal sanctions (s35 prosecutions) and 'reasonable excuse'

  20 February 2012 Press Release

  BID's Travel Document Project aims to help immigration detainees who wish to return home, and their legal representatives, to understand the steps that need to be taken when applying for a travel document from a person’s national authorities.  Attempts made to obtain travel documents are taken into account by the courts and the UK Border Agency when deciding if and when to release someone from detention.  At immigration bail hearings, UKBA may oppose release on the ground that an alleged failure to cooperate with the redocumentation process makes it more likely that a person may fail to cooperate with reporting requirements – or abscond - if released from detention. 

  BID believes that most immigration detainees and many legal representatives, as well as other non-detained foreign nationals, are unaware of how their enquiries must be pursued repeatedly and exhaustively over an extended period in order not to be characterised by UKBA as

  •  Having failed to cooperate on an ongoing basis with attempts to remove them
  • Having failed to exhaust all possible routes to getting travel documents

  In the absence of published guidance from UKBA, an objective of the Travel Document Project is to fill the information gap around the type of practical steps needed both to attempt to establish identity or obtain travel documents, and to demonstrate ‘sustained effort’ to obtain evidence of identity or nationality for the purpose of  obtaining travel documents.  BID has therefore attempted to discern this from other contexts.

  This new briefing offers a series of practical steps that can be taken - both the 'how' and 'how much' of re-documentation, as well as information on criminal sanctions for non-cooperation (Section 35 prosecutions) and 'reasonable excuse'.

  DOWNLOAD this briefing from the very bottom of the right hand column on this page. 

   

   

   

• Bailed detainees - how to make an application for S4 bail accommodation and support once released if a private accommodation arrangement breaks down

  14 February 2012 Press Statement

  Did you know that a detainee released on bail to a private address may be able to make an application for Section 4 (1)(c) bail support, including accomodation, if that arrangement breaks down after they have been released for a while.  The application should be treated like a variation of bail conditions. 

  The relevant section of UKBA published policy is at page 39 of UKBA's Asylum Process Guidance ‘Section 4 bail accommodation’, available here

  “With the exception to the fact that the applicant is applying for a section 4 bail address from a private bail address, as opposed to applying from a detention centre, and that applicant is applying to have his/her own bail conditions varied, rather than applying for a grant of bail from detention, the process specified in this instruction will still apply”

  The guidance is not clear about whether the short form Section 4 (1)(c)(bail accomodation) application form or the longer form Section 4 (2) form should be used, but it would make sense as this would be a Section 4 bail accomodation application to use the shorter form application which does not require the applicant to meet the second stage eligibility criteria.  

  See also the BID and Ex-Detainee Project leaflet 'Guide to Release from Detention: Accomodation and Financial Support' available here   

• NEW leaflet 'Accomodation and Financial Support on Release' for detainees, from BID and the Ex-Detainee Project at Dover Detainee Visitor Group

  14 February 2012 Press Statement

  Many detainees are unaware of the accomodation and financial support they may be eligible for if they are released from detention, for example Section 4 or Section 95 support (such as Section 4 (1)(c) bail accomodation and support). Detainees may not realise that what they are eligible for will be different depending on whether they are released on Tribunal bail to a Section 4 address or to a private address, or if they are released on Temporary Admission.  Understanding these differences can help reduce destitution among released detainees.  

  BID and the Ex-Detainee Project run by the Dover Detainee Visitor Group  have produced a leaflet for detainees on their accomodation options, with a 'small print' section on the back for support groups, including contact details for organisations that can help with destitution.

  The next version will have further information on support options for detaineed EEA nationals.  A similar leaflet is being prepared on support options for families separated by detention, as well as a leaflet on access to healthcare on release from detention.

  Many thanks to the Asylum Support Appeals Project for their invaluable help.

  You can download the Accomodation and Financial Support on Release leaflet from the right hand column at the very bottom of this page.  It is also available on the Bulletins page  of our website

• ILPA & BID joint response to consultation on new bail guidance for immigration judges

  12 December 2011 Press Statement

  BID and the Immigration Law Practitioners' Association (ILPA) have submitted a detailed response to the request for comments on the latest bail guidance for immigration judges from the President of the First Tier Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber.  

  The joint response can be downloaded from the very bottom of the right hand column of this page.  

• Prisons Inspector criticises UK Border Agency for holding too many pregnant women in detention

  8 December 2011 Press Release

  Nick Hardwick, Chief Inspector of Prisons, has published a new report on an inspection of Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire.

• New LSC legal surgery rotas available here

  8 December 2011 Press Statement

   The new rotas from the Legal Services Commission for legal advice surgeries in removal centres from December 2011 onwards are now available.  The rota for the detention duty advice scheme, and the Harmondsworth Fast Track legal advice rota can both be downloaded from the right hand column of this page.  The Yarl's Wood Fast Track rota will be posted online as soon as it is available.

• Inspectorate report on UKBA and foreign national ex-offenders

  1 November 2011

  Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) welcomes the recent Inspection Report released by John Vine, the Independent Chief Inspector of the UK Border Agency (UKBA), detailing his findings and recommendations following an assessment of the UKBA’s efficacy and efficiency in managing and using its powers to deport Foreign National Prisoners (FNPs)

  BID prefers the term Foreign National Ex-Offender (FNEO) for those individuals who have finished their custodial sentence, as they are no longer prisoners.

  
  

• Refugee Children's Consortium briefing - current situation around immigration detention of children & the new family returns process, Sept 16th 2011

  19 September 2011 Press Statement

  Despite having committed to ending the immigration detention of children in May last year, the Government opened a new family detention facility in Crawley, Sussex in September 2011.

• Latest (2011) version of UKBA's Emergency Travel Document timescales and requirements now available to download from BID website

  4 August 2011 Press Statement

  UKBA have just disclosed the most up to date (2011) version of their Returns Group Documentation Unit ETD Country Reference Guide (Timescales and Requirements) which we requested in July 2011 following the release by UKBA of the 2010 version.

• Superceded 2003 bail guidance for adjudicators along with timeline of use - for reference

  18 July 2011 Press Statement

  A few people have contacted BID recently looking for the 2003 'Bail Guidance Notes for Adjudicators from the Chief Adjudicator'. 

Filter News by: