Thread by @DLPublicLaw

As another year draws to a close, we want to reflect on some highlights. But first we want to thank our clients for trusting us in such difficult times & the brilliant barristers, interpreters, NGOs, experts & court staff we work with each day. We wish you a very happy New Year🎊

Here are our highlights!👇🏾

1. We obtained a Rule 39 ‘interim measure’ from the ECHR which had the effect of grounding the first flight to Rwanda. This battle continues for our clients facing removal to Rwanda. There will, no doubt, be more to follow in 2023.

2. We acted for @pcs_union & @Care4Calais in challenging the Gov’t’s ‘Pushbacks’ policy - a plan to stop migrant boats in UK waters & forcibly redirect them to France. A week before the hearing, the Gov’t withdrew the policy and paid our costs.

Read more: duncanlewis.co.uk/news/Home_Offi…

3. Following the biggest loss of life in the Channel for over 30 years, we threatened the Gov’t with legal action on behalf of victims’ families & a survivor. They committed to an Article 2-compliant investigation into the search & rescue operation. We’ll push for this in 2023.

4. We continued to represent clients facing removal via charter flights to countries like Iraq & Zimbabwe. We stopped removal of many Jamaican survivors of #countylines trafficking who the system had repeatedly failed. We won Article 3 appeals after clients were taken off flights

5. We represented 30+ Syrian families awaiting resettlement. Our legal intervention secured expedition for several but many continue to wait. Gov’t is quick to highlight historic & limited ‘safe & legal routes’ yet many still wait in tragic circumstances
 
independent.co.uk/news/world/mid…

6. We represented a woman held at #Manston holding facility, @DetentionAction & @pcs_union in the first legal action against SSHD for her unlawful detention & mistreatment of those held there. Manston was emptied as a result.
 
doughtystreet.co.uk/news/manston-h…

7. Our @ahmed_aydeed and his team secured significant victories in the Courts in separate rulings on behalf of trafficking survivors.

Some examples below:

theguardian.com/law/2022/mar/1…

8. We represented family members of UK nationals trapped in #Afghanistan at the time of evacuation & won concession that they can make UK visa applications *without* biometrics. Another case highlighting failings in Gov’t’s limited ‘safe and legal routes’

theguardian.com/politics/2022/…

9. We represented 9 asylum-seeking families housed in Staindrop Lodge hotel who had spent months in squalid conditions before being moved. Conditions also improved for current residents with no more overcrowding, curfews & abusive hotel staff as a result of our judicial review.

10. We continued to play a leading role in the Brook House Inquiry with phase 2 heard this year. Several of our clients evidenced the severe abuse suffered by detainees, a toxic & abusive systemic culture & the endemic mistreatment of the highly vulnerable. We await the findings.

11. Following our legal challenge, the Home Office agreed to review its Fee Waiver policy for human rights-based & other applications, which provides guidance on making these kind of applications when they are made after a fee waiver
 
freemovement.org.uk/home-office-to…

12. Finally, so many clients won appeals / were granted asylum. Just one example: After successfully challenging her transfer away from school, our client was granted asylum & got amazing GCSE results. She’s now studying A levels with plans to study law.
 
google.com/amp/s/amp.theg…