The Palestine Action judgment: www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/u...

First inspection report on ‘one-in, one-out’ flights to France hmiprisons.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmipris_repo...

'The identity of Stakeknife is clear to everybody': Taoiseach names Freddie Scappaticci in the Dáil as IRA mole jrnl.ie/6953662

The Trump administration has signed Rwanda-style agreements "with more than 20 countries to accept third-country nationals" www.migrationpolicy.org/article/trum.... Being a superpower probably helps...

Non-EU employees in the UK rose by 1.85 million between 2021 and 2025 migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/br...

Despite Parliament passing legislation to make the rules on immigration detention more strict, a recent High Court decision "neuters, to a significant extent" that legislation, relying on ECHR human rights law.

"The public have clearly become more sceptical about the impact of migrants in the wake of the recent record levels of regular and irregular migration" natcen.ac.uk/publications...

"Some argued that post-Brexit the public would be less concerned with immigration numbers, as immigration was now under the government’s control. Except the Channel crossings were clearly not under control". consoc.org.uk/publications...

Morgan McSweeney who made his way from Macroom, the town that never raised a fool, to Downing Street is profiled here by one of the few journalists who secured an interview with him. jrnl.ie/6951470t

"A month after the Home Secretary threatened visa penalties, Namibia and Angola agreed to cooperate on returns. The Home Secretary has now secured cooperation from the Democratic Republic of Congo" www.gov.uk/government/n...

UK expands Hong Kong visa scheme in wake of Jimmy Lai’s prison sentence

"From February 25th, all Irish nationals must have a passport to travel to the UK on Aer Lingus flights despite the long-standing Common Travel Area (CTA) arrangement, the airline said" www.irishtimes.com/life-style/t...

In the middle of a Supreme Court hearing on disguised employment in limited liability partnerships, one of the judge's phones starts playing a The Rest is History podcast episode which kicks off with an unimprovably spirited impression of Jimmy Carter

Home Secretary confirms that the UK government did not formally trigger the break clause in the asylum seeker relocation treaty with Rwanda until Dec 2025. (Rwanda says that delay means the UK owes £100m in payments due under the treaty).

Stop the boats to get safe and legal routes for refugees, Home Secretary says committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence...

NEW: Police in Northern Ireland will curb sharing data on migrant victims of crime with UK immigration enforcement, after admitting that routine sharing “could be perceived as constituting institutional racism”.

There’s a written statement on the Cranston inquiry on today’s Order Paper, with the final report due to be published this morning. This was the inquiry set up to investigate the deaths of 31 people in the channel in November 2021 commonsbusiness.parliament.uk/Document/102...

The British Justice Secretary has described an Irish bus driver who was sacked after chasing down a thief as a “hero”. David Lammy today told the House of Commons that Mark Hehir, who is originally from Limerick but now lives in north-west London, “deserves our support”. jrnl.ie/6946153

Quite impressed that from the date of my filling in a passport renewal to it landing on my passage floor was 10 days. That’s a bit of government that’s working quite well, tbh.

Haven't seen as much coverage of Foreign Sec's migration cooperation negotiations with Ethiopia (compared to Iraq/KRI migration pact) & wondering how this will work. Ethiopians constitute v small proportion of small boat population so more about stopping Eritreans/Sudanese....? tinyurl.com/29fv5uzm

The companies that do digital identity verification say they have tons of data on fraud but can't find anyone at the Home Office who wants it committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence...

The fundamental underlying challenge of preventing illegal working through mandatory digital checks substack.com/home/post/p-...

Around 185,000 Hong Kongers have come to the UK since 2021, after the BNO visa was created. Join us on the 11th of February to find out how Hong Kongers are adapting to life in the UK. Register here 👇 www.eventbrite.com/e/hong-kong-...

This stuff is so depressing and so harmful for genuine sponsors and sponsored employees too. And particularly depressing how desperate people who have lost care jobs are being drawn to these schemes.

It appears that the Rwanda claim against UK is not based on a badly drafted termination clause, but... ...because the current government did not formally terminate the contract in time, hence the payments still due and owing. If true, whoopsie. Rwanda statement www.gov.rw/fileadmin/us...

“We spoke to 26 agents and company representatives selling sponsorship, and documented more than 250 examples of fake jobs being offered”. www.thetimes.com/article/56b6...

"Using data on over 30,000 immigration appeals in the UK, I find evidence that non-white women are likelier than any other group to rule in favour of the government rather than the migrant. In view of extant scholarship, this finding is surprising". www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Some visa stuff in last week's industrial strategy statement from the UK government: questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-stat.... Not the best reflection on existing processes if they need to be bypassed for favoured applicants, frankly.

Glasgow: "in this financial year (2025/26), 44.5% of new demand for homelessness assistance has been from refugee households", often people moving from elsewhere in Scotland after being granted refugee status www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/2579719...

"The core problem is that we rarely say out loud what we all know privately: some immigration policies, and thus also some immigrants which they bring, are much more beneficial economically or culturally than others for receiving countries". substack.com/home/post/p-...

Gas that people becoming British citizens used to be doxxed, as we might now think of it, in the official government Gazette

France makes first interception targeting small boat crossings to UK www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

"She will announce tweaks to the visa regime aimed at encouraging “trailblazer” businesses to bring highly skilled staff to the UK – including refunding fees – and speeding up the time it takes to qualify as a sponsor of migrant workers." www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Clamping down on harmful media from the United States, 1950s version hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/1965-1...

The government is still committed to mandatory digital checks on people's right to work in the UK. Interesting point about this allowing for a record of which employers have done the checks and which haven't hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2026...

Digital ID to not be compulsory for any purposes, the government now says. Initial thought is that uptake is likely to be minimal then and the argument for it helping curb illegal working is now DOA. www.thetimes.com/article/0044...

"Digital checks on a person's right to work will be mandatory but workers will not have to offer a digital ID and will be able to use other documents such as a passport" (and many other documents for fear of Windrush situations, I suspect) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

"Most people in the UK think net migration increased last year — when it more than halved... One reason for this disconnect could be that asylum seekers now account for a growing share of overall immigration" www.ft.com/content/a17f...

“Immigration [E]nforcement was given £5m to arrest, detain and remove migrants working illegally, and officers have been wearing body-worn cameras since September to help publicise arrests and prosecutions” news.sky.com/story/illega...

Only 48 people in Denmark had their asylum cancelled in 2024 after review of their temporary status - a model the UK is keen to copy - according to the UN Refugee Agency www.unhcr.org/uk/sites/uk/...

Sir James Munby, former president of the High Court family division, died on New Year’s Day. He was 77. “That he chose to spend the greater part of his career in family law was of great and long-lasting benefit," his successor Sir Andrew McFarlane said. rozenberg.substack.com/p/sir-james-...

Nuanced position paper from @unhcr.org on UK's asylum proposals. Strongly against prolonged insecurity for refugees and abolition of family reunion. Support for increased returns, France deal and return hubs. www.unhcr.org/uk/media/unh...

This government whining about the volume of written questions from MPs includes a dismissal of "when?" questions, but the difference between a thing being done by June or by 2037 is significant news.sky.com/story/number...

The last time I checked a couple of years ago, the Home Office cost recovery target on visa processing was 202%, but in the latest annual report it was 241% - meaning that for every £100 it costs to administer the visa system, the department aims to raise £241 in fees.

"Denmark’s Refugee Appeals Board does deliver final decisions quickly and has very few onward challenges. However, Denmark also has far higher initial grant rates (around 65–70 per cent) than the UK (47%) and invests heavily in high-quality first decisions". ukandeu.ac.uk/labours-asyl...

"... a victory for those who argue that digital IDs could be used to improve a wide range of public services... over those who think the remit should be strictly limited to combating illegal migration". www.ft.com/content/36af...

Special dispensation for foreign prison officers who, it was widely reported last year, faced being unable to renew their work visas www.poauk.org.uk/news-events/...

Can a British citizen travel to the UK using a non-British passport? https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10344/

“There are no official statistics but it is estimated that almost three-quarters of the Roma population fled after the riots – and that since September most have quietly returned but avoided the Clonavon area and dispersed across other neighbourhoods”. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

We updated our briefing on this suddenly topical subject just before Christmas