Implications of the Illegal Migration Bill - Part Two

Garden Court Chambers held an online seminar on the new Illegal Migration Bill which is being rushed through Parliament and its serious implications for asylum-seekers. This was the second event in our three-part webinar series about the Illegal Migration Bill. 

The Bill would serve to further weaken protections for victims of trafficking and will likely give rise to a real risk of legal challenge.

Topics will include:

• The duty to remove, destinations for removal and designation of Albania as a safe country 

• Changes to the law of immigration detention in the proposed bill, both under the new removal powers and more widely, as well as possible routes of challenge. 

• Modern slavery provisions and their compatibility with the UK’s obligations towards trafficking victims under the ECHR & ECAT, and the (in)effectiveness of combating smuggling/trafficking gangs

• How these proposals will operate alongside Part 5 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022

The aim was to provide attendees with an understanding of the Bill and equip them with what they need to know now. This webinar was aimed at busy legal practitioners and others in the field who work with asylum seekers.

Sonali Naik KC, Garden Court Chambers (Chair)
Sonali Naik KC specialises in public law cases and in all aspects of immigration, asylum and nationality law and practice. She was appointed King’s Counsel in 2018 and conducts almost exclusively leading work at all levels: the European Court of Human Rights, the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the Administrative Court and the Upper Tribunal in statutory appeals and judicial reviews. 

Sonali has very substantial immigration and asylum experience in her High Court and appellate court practice, acting in various country guidance asylum cases, such as AS(Afghanistan) v SSHD [2019] WLR 5345 in the Court of Appeal, (with UNHCR intervening). She has an extensive judicial review practice in challenges to Home Office policy, trafficking and unlawful detention, Article 8 ECHR certification and nationality and brought the first successful generic injunction cases in charter flight removals in HN(Afghanistan).

She was one of the winners of a Highly Commended Award at the Lawyer Awards 2022 for a pro bono initiative to assist Afghan judges secure UK visas. In 2023, Sonali was listed in The Lawyer magazine’s Hot 100 list, which recognises excellence in the legal profession.

David Jones, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
David is an accomplished Immigration and human rights practitioner with more than 20 years experience. Over more than two decades David has developed an extraordinary level of expertise as a practitioner in all areas of immigration, human rights, EU Free Movement, and nationality law. David also enjoys an expanding practice in managed and business migration. David has in particular over time been at the vanguard of proceedings seeking to attain equality of treatment for Foreign National offenders, particularly with regard to accessing to early release programs and resisting enforcement action.

In November 2022, David appeared at the Joint Committee on Human Rights in Parliament as a witness to submit evidence in the first session of its new inquiry into the human rights of asylum seekers

Greg Ó Ceallaigh, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Greg specialises in human rights, asylum and immigration, civil and public law. He is ranked in the Chambers UK Bar Guide 2023 and the Legal 500 2023 for immigration. Greg has over 15 years’ experience in immigration law and has acted in all kinds of matters ranging from the most complex asylum and human rights claims to Tier 1 Investor cases. 

Greg is highly experienced in immigration detention work and has represented detainees in detention claims at every level from the Administrative Court to the Supreme Court (including Fardous v SSHD [2015] EWCA Civ 92, R (Sathanantham) v SSHD [2016] 4 WLR 128 and R (on the application of) (Hemmati) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2019] UKSC 56), as well as in civil actions for false imprisonment both in the County Court and the Queen's Bench Division ((e.g. Louis v The Home Office [2021] EWHC 288 (QB) and AO v The Home Office [2021] EWHC 1043 (QB))).

Emma Fitzsimons, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Emma Fitzsimons is an immigration and public law barrister, practising in immigration and asylum, unlawful detention, trafficking, age assessments and community care. She is a committed and conscientious advocate, who has particular strength in representing vulnerable clients. Emma acts for claimants against public authorities, and has experience of judicial review challenges in the Upper Tribunal and Administrative Court, particularly in fresh claims, certification, age assessment and trafficking decisions.

She regularly appears on behalf of unaccompanied minors, trafficking victims and vulnerable adults in the First-tier Tribunal, Upper Tribunal and Administrative Court. She also has experience of successfully acting in urgent removal cases. She is a contributing author to the leading immigration practitioner text, Macdonald's Immigration Law and Practice.

Steven Galliver-Andrew, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers 
Steven specialises in asylum and immigration law, human rights, and related public law and civil actions. He regularly represents Appellants in asylum appeals, appeals against deportation, human rights appeals, and matters involving cross-border human trafficking and modern slavery.

Steven has rapidly developed a specialism for identifying and strategising unlawful detention claims, often arising out of immigration bail or applications for urgent interim relief. He has represented clients in the High Court and often assists with securing damages by consent without the need for protracted litigation. 

David Neale, Legal Researcher, Garden Court Chambers
David assists members of Chambers by carrying out expert legal research in all areas of law. In addition to providing expert legal research and analysis to members of Chambers, David also works closely with Breaking the Chains, a joint project of Shpresa and the Migrant and Refugee Children’s Legal Unit (MiCLU) at Islington Law Centre, to improve outcomes for asylum-seeking Albanian young people.

David’s primary expertise is in immigration, asylum and nationality law. He is a co-General Editor of Macdonald’s Immigration Law and Practice, an Assistant Consultant Editor of the British nationality volume of Halsbury’s Laws of England, a contributor to Butterworths Immigration Law Service, and writes a regular column on immigration law for Legal Action magazine. David jointly won Legal Aid Support Staffer of the Year at the LAPG Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Awards 2022.