Those beads are people. Families. Friends. Neighbours. Children. Doctors and nurses. Teachers and carers. Millions of them.

I remain proud to work at such a consistently committed firm representing our clients to really high standard across the board @luqmanithompson.bsky.social We are regarded as one of the best firms in the area of Immigration, Human Rights, Asylum and Deportation. luqmanithompson.com/news/luqmani...

Really pleased to be able to get a positive outcome for my client - it would be good to have a wider sense from other practitioners about how frequently the Home Office are exercising discretion since February 2025 change to policy.

New post just out: "On the edge" On my unexpected week in hospital and five things I learnt about the state of the NHS. (Free to read) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/o...

Another case in which a barrister is found to have used generative AI to formulate his grounds of appeal, which amazingly turn out to be complete nonsense, & then tried to double down rather than fessing up: see the postscript at §32 onwards, which is real watch-through-your-fingers painful stuff

Really great @stephenkb.bsky.social column today. on.ft.com/3KOUh07 Key para.

Blessed Are The Meek, And Everyone's Saying I'm The Meekest There's Ever Been. My SKETCH of a prophet getting a great deal of honour in another country.

Your occasional reminder that 93% of UK parents do not send their children to a private school.

Do you need to know about the steps to take when making a citizenship application? This article might be for you: luqmanithompson.com/news/what-ar...

Nobody inside government seems able to give any clear account of what they are proposing or not proposing on indefinite leave to remain for migrants already in Britain My column discussed some apparently contradictory messages www.easterneye.biz/keir-starmer...

NEW: When Labour voters were asked why they believed things were getting worse for the UK, they overwhelmingly cited Brexit as the number one cause, with 69 per cent naming the decision to leave the European Union as the main reason behind the country’s problems. inews.co.uk/news/politic...

The even more unbelievable crime fact (which I learned relatively recently) is that burglary has fallen by more than 90% since the 1990s. Did anyone notice? Nope. Does anyone believe it? Nope. But is is true? It is!

From yesterday: Yvette Cooper and Home Office immigration ministers cleared out in reshuffle | Colin Yeo

Read more [8/8] ⬇️

Trying to work out what evidence you need when making an application to naturalise as a British citizen? This article will help! luqmanithompson.com/news/what-ev...

NEWS: UK Government temporarily suspends refugee family reunion applications luqmanithompson.com/news/news-uk...

It's a miracle - a Labour MP making a robust, unapologetic defence of human rights and decency in immigration policy www.politics.co.uk/mp-comment/2...

Nigel Farage wants to give your money to these people

He caused havoc with Brexit. Don’t let him do it again - here’s five red flags about what Farage said today. Hit share to show him we see through him.

“Tabloids tell us Connolly is lovely, ordinary, caring, a great Mum. But she wasn’t punished for any of that. She was punished for telling a mob it's okay to set fire to hotels full of people she sees as lesser. That she did it between a cuppa and walking the dog, makes it more chilling, not less.”

What the headlines don't tell you: 👉 Numbers much lower than the Tory peak 👉 Spending on hotels has dropped significantly 👉 Applications are being processed faster https://www.thenational.scot/news/25408148.uk-media-gone-big-asylum-seeker-hotel-figures/

The Green Party will always be clear. Refugees are welcome here.

📢 Warning from over 200 organisations that the far-right has hijacked women’s safety for political gain. The Government must take urgent action to prevent misinformation spreading. #NotInOurName www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home... @asylummatters.bsky.social @evawuk.bsky.social

Good to see this stuff covered elsewhere - especially this stat which cannot be repeated enough: "The Home Office’s own data showed decision-making accuracy dropped to 52 per cent in 2023-24, down from 72 per cent the previous year." www.ft.com/content/819c...

I'd like to hear from some of the commentators shouting about revolution why they never bothered to cover the complete collapse of the processing system. Was visible from space (and before 2014 too).

New YouGov polling. A monumental failure of our political class to educate, a monumental failure of our media to report fairly, for a generation

DuckDuckGo has added a feature to filter out AI images from search results.

This is a great opportunity to learn from some very experienced lawyers and be involved in (actually really interesting, albeit pretty relentlessly challenging) law. Please share with anyone who might fit the bill!

Citizenship is expensive but some children may be eligible for fee waivers. Joni Murray has written more about the process of applying for a fee waiver for a child's citizenship application here: luqmanithompson.com/news/citizen...

We are hiring for Paralegals! If you would like to see more about the application process then please see our website. luqmanithompson.com/about/vacanc...

🚨 In 2024, 57% of people seeking asylum in the UK were forced to navigate the increasingly hostile-by-design immigration system WITHOUT access to legal aid. Research shows that trusted, publicly-funded advice has become harder and harder to find👇🏽 www.migrantsorganise.org/new-report-t...

This is a great opportunity to learn from some very experienced lawyers and be involved in (actually really interesting, albeit pretty relentlessly challenging) law. Please share with anyone who might fit the bill!

Almost 2 in 5 migrant seasonal workers who requested a transfer to a new farm saw their request denied, according to new data from Defra. This means that for many workers, their right to transfer is a right in name only. That can't be right ⛓️ www.workrightscentre.org/publications...

We are very happy to announce that we have three new solicitors at Luqmani Thompson. Joni Murray and Sarah Livesey both recently qualified as solicitors, following Kaylie Tang who qualified in January this year. Congratulations to our new solicitors!

This poor guy. Another horrific US immigration story, and I can’t stress too much: the only thing preventing this also happening in the UK- deportation for old offences despite decades of residence & multiple strong mitigation- is the ECHR, which Labour want to “reform” & the far right want to leave

A fact: More than 3,000 people were convicted in the last month of fare dodging in London Cases all brought to court by TfL More could be done, sure But let's not pretend nothing is done Also a fact: The last government invented a court system which hides these cases from the public

Yesterday’s immigration stats highlighted how vital refugee family reunion is as a safe & legal route. Due to the asylum backlog clearance just over 20,000 visas were granted in the last year, 90% to women & children. But the route is potentially under threat www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

.@WeAreLAPG is proud to announce 📢 the 30 finalists in this year's Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year awards. For an insight into the doggedness 🐶& brilliance 🌟of lawyers at the social justice coalface, look no further than our #LALY25 shortlist....... lapg.co.uk/lapg-announc...

Milla Walker, partner and joint head of Immigration at Luqmani Thompson, is a finalist in the 2025 Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year awards in the Immigration Category! We are sure that everyone who has ever worked with Milla will agree this is well deserved! luqmanithompson.com/news/milla-w...

It remains one of the greatest privileges of my life that I get to do the job I do; after 20 years, I still love representing and supporting my clients from all corners of the world. It is a cherry on top to have been kindly nominated by my colleagues & clients for a LALY; I'm chuffed! #LALY25

We have a prime minister and AG apparently from two leading human rights chambers in the country whose party keep talking about the rule of law since election and yet there’s still nothing concrete on reviving legal aid… consultation on more consultation until we are all buried in PDFs

The India deal is set to deliver a 0.1% boost to the UK’s economy by 2040, equivalent to £4.8bn - more than the Tories' Japan, AUS & NZ deals combined. But it still pales in comparison to the 2.2% GDP growth a common sense deal with the EU could deliver.

A 450-yo oak is felled without permission by a Toby Carvery (don’t eat there), who falsely claimed it was "dead". A tree alive when The Gunpowder Plot was hatched, which supports a web of 2000+ species, is in pieces. Legal protection for heritage trees needed. enfielddispatch.co.uk/toby-carvery...

Toby Carvery deserve a roasting for this.

💥 There will be a debate in parliament on 24th April, on the trading relationship with EU, exquisitely timed to be a month before the big summit between VdL and Starmer. Please share if you feel you can (or simply write to your own MP!). hey-mp.uk?c=debate 🇪🇺🇬🇧

Trusted legal advice is a lifeline. It's astounding that in 2024 a staggering 57% of people seeking asylum in the UK did not have access to legal aid. In the context of hostile immigration policies alongside austerity cuts to social welfare –  this is a recipe for poverty and pain. ⬇️

We've been talking an awful lot about how the Trump tariffs will hit the big players: the UK, China, Canada, France, Germany etc But it's time to talk about the ones who DON'T have loud voices. Because some of the poorest countries in the world are going to be crippled by what happened last night

NEW: Friends of Neri Alvarado, rotting in a Salvadoran prison on Trump's orders, made a video highlighting his volunteer work helping neurodiverse children learn to swim. Neri was sent there after someone at ICE thought his autism awareness tattoo was a gang tattoo. Vid posted by Noah Lanard on X.

This is a rotten plan which should be opposed - but it’s not an alternative to the Rwanda plan, which involved effectively repudiating responsibility for most refugees and shipping them off before their claims were even considered 1/