EU Settlement Scheme: Barriers and solutions for children and vulnerable adults

The EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) is closing at the end of the month. It is intended to offer a free and fast settlement to EU citizens in the UK. However, in practice, many EU citizens have faced practical and legal barriers at every stage of the application process and post-application. This is particularly the case with children, including looked after children and care-leavers, and vulnerable adults.

This webinar will explore some of the barriers and discuss practical solutions for clients to ensure they secure the status they are entitled to pursuant to the EUSS. The webinar will include:

• An overview of the latest guidance and best practice in relation to children, including children in care and care-leavers;
• Practical tips for making applications;
• Recent litigation on EUSS in relation to adults who lack capacity;
• Strategies for challenging refusals
• An opportunity for Q and A and information sharing.
   

Recording

Speakers

Gráinne Mellon, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers (Chair)
Gráinne is a barrister with expertise in public law, human rights, equality, immigration law and children’s rights. She has expertise in migrant children cases and in immigration and family overlap cases. She is frequently instructed as an expert in family proceedings to advise on immigration issues, including entry of children to the UK, regularising family status and placements of children abroad. She has worked in particular on obligations of local authorities EU children in care following Brexit and has been working pro bono in recent months to help a number of EU children to apply to the EUSS.

Gráinne publishes and lectures widely in the area of migrant children and the international movement of children and is the co-author, of the upcoming chapter on Immigration Law in The International Family Law Practice, Lexis-Nexis (6th edition).

Bojana Asanovic, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Bojana has a wide-ranging practice in immigration and asylum matters at all levels of statutory appeals and judicial review challenges. Bojana's specialist interests are in claims involving EU free movement, sexual orientation and gender identity, trafficking/modern slavery and deportation. She is instructed regularly in legally very complex cases, as well as those involving vulnerable claimants. She is experienced in dealing with high-value business matters. Bojana has a wide interest and expertise in the European Convention on Human Rights.

Bojana had acted as a legal analyst in international election observation missions for OSCE ODIHR. Prior to coming to the English Bar, she was a current affairs journalist in former Yugoslavia. Bojana was Highly Commended in the Junior Pro Bono Barrister of the Year category at the Advocate Bar Pro Bono Awards 2020.

Ollie Persey, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Ollie is a public law barrister. He joined Garden Court Chambers from Public Law Project, where he gained considerable experience in strategic litigation at all domestic levels including the Supreme Court.  Ollie has a broad public law practice, specialising in disability and migrant rights and has particular expertise in judicial review claims raising discrimination, education, EU citizens’ rights and retained EU law issues. At Public Law Project, Ollie worked on all aspects of judicial review litigation and is well-placed to advise from the earliest stages of a potential claim. He has in-depth knowledge of the legal aid scheme, with expertise in applying for Exceptional Case Funding (ECF) and challenging Legal Aid Agency funding decisions. Ollie also coordinated Public Law Project’s EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) support hub, providing second-tier advice to Law Centres and other organisations assisting vulnerable EU citizens and family members to apply to the EUSS. 

He has experience of high-profile Brexit-related judicial reviews, including Miller & Cherry v Prime Minister [2019] UKSC 41, in which the Supreme Court held that the prorogation of Parliament was unlawful. Public Law Project’s intervention focused on the importance of Parliamentary scrutiny of Brexit-related statutory instruments. Ollie welcomes instructions in judicial review claims concerning EU citizens’ rights and questions of retained EU law. He acts for individuals and NGOs in judicial review claims challenging systemic unfairness. He was recently junior counsel for Project 17 (led by Amanda Weston QC and Bijan Hoshi) in W v Secretary of State for the Home Department, Project 17 intervening [2020] EWHC 1299 (Admin), in which the High Court held that part of the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) scheme breached Article 3 ECHR. 

Stewart MacLachlan, Senior Legal and Policy Officer, Coram Children’s Legal Centre
Stewart is Senior Legal and Policy Officer for the Migrant Children’s Project, part of Coram Children’s Legal Centre. He leads the project's training and legal guidance, as well as contributing to the policy work of the project. He is co-author of Seeking Support (fifth edition), a guide to working with separated children and young people. 

Stewart is a practising Scottish solicitor, qualifying in 2010, and was accredited as a level 2 supervisor under the Immigration and Asylum Accreditation Scheme in England. He previously worked at an immigration firm in Nottingham and has worked for over 4 years in law centres in Scotland. He is on the Board of Trustees at the Scottish Child Law Centre.