Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter!
The Immigration and Asylum Bill passed its second reading last week by 264 votes to 90. The Bar Council is the latest to publish a statement on why appointing lay people in the new independent immigration appeals authority is a terrible idea, and raised concerns over the risk of bias given that the Home Secretary will appoint the adjudicators. The Joint Committee on Human Rights has issued a call for evidence and written submissions can be made here. The deadline is 1 September.
HM Inspectorate of Prisons published a review of women’s experiences in immigration detention and the findings from mixed-sex centres are particularly concerning. Women feel intimidated and unsafe, and staff are generally not equipped to support women with complex backgrounds, including survivors of gender-based violence and modern slavery. Finding suitable bail accommodation was another issue, meaning that women are often detained for longer than they should be. Women at Derwentside – the only dedicated female facility – had more positive experiences, so improvements are possible. Women for Refugee Women published a response here.
If one damning report on immigration detention wasn’t enough, this one looks at short-term holding facilities managed by Border Force. One of the most disturbing cases involved a 16-year-old girl who was going to stay at an address where men had been arrested for trafficking and sexual exploitation offences. The Home Office decided she was not a victim of trafficking and Border Force (wrongly) said it wasn’t their responsibility to question that decision, so they removed her. Most issues from the previous inspection have not been addressed.
Last week on the blog, Katherine Soroya covered the Upper Tribunal’s discovery of a ‘well-oiled’ fraudulent business machine which was lodging fake judicial review claims off the back of visit visa refusals. None of the applicants had any knowledge of the proceedings and nearly every document relied on had been stolen.
We had the outcome of Safe Passage’s challenge to the suspension of the refugee family reunion route. This was unfortunately dismissed and we are no closer to having anything reasonable in place for family members to join those with protection status in the UK. The only option under the current rules remains applying under Appendix FM, which is immensely more difficult.
We now have a guide explaining the options for care workers when an employer’s sponsor licence is revoked and we have updated our briefing on alleged deception, false information and innocent mistakes in the context of suitability refusals.
For everything else on Free Movement and elsewhere, read on.
Jasmine
What we’re reading
You cannot demand integration while building an asylum system on insecurity, Open Democracy, 15 July 2026
Immigration Bill Second Reading: “Unfair, unsafe and unworkable” – but few Labour MPs vote against it, Labour Hub, 14 July 2026
Man in Christmas jumper and second man jailed for endangering lives during Channel crossings, Crown Prosecution Service, 15 July 2026
British girl, 15, stranded in Rome for six weeks due to new passport rules, The Guardian, 16 July 2026
A New Prime Minister, a New Deal: Time for an ambitious UK–EU pact on small boats, Migration Policy Institute Europe, 16 July 2026
Refugee Voices in Modern Global History, Refugee Studies Centre, 13 July 2026
Green-Led London Council Plans to Block ‘ICE-Style Immigration Raids’, Novara Media, 15 July 2026
UK to continue sending potential trafficking victims to France despite court ruling, The Guardian, 14 July 2026
‘We are dying little by little here’: asylum seekers at mercy of Home Office hotel closures, The Guardian, 14 July 2026