The RCC began as, and remains, a lobbying group that brings together organisations with expertise in refugee and/or children’s issues. Together we contribute to the debate on how refugee and migrant children’s rights can best be protected in an increasingly hostile environment.
Today the Supreme Court ruled that the Home Office policy of ‘deport first, appeal later’ was unlawful. This is of particular importance in light of the recent extension of out-of-country appeals to all human rights applications. Under the Immigration Bill 2016, the Secretary of State gained the power to certify the claim of someone appealing…
CCLC has today published a new guide called ‘Securing permanent status: existing legal routes for children and young people without leave to remain in the UK.’ This guide was first published in 2013 to outline to individuals, organisations and policy-makers the legal routes through which children and young people can attain status in the UK where…
An important judgment in an education case brought by CCLC sets out the law and procedure which should apply when applications for costs are made in the First Tier Tribunal. In the case of MG v Cambridgeshire County Council (SEN) [2017] UKUT 0172 (AAC), CCLC represented the parent of a child with special educational needs…
At the start of April, the Supreme Court ruled in a high-profile case on the issue of taking a child out of school during term time. A year previously, Jon Platt took his youngest daughter out of school for seven days to go on a family holiday to Disneyland Florida during term time without permission.…
On 6th April 2017, the fees for immigration applications rose once more. Immigration law is extremely complex, and any child, young person or family who has uncertain immigration status, or limited leave (“permission”) to be in the UK should obtain legal advice to assist with their application. Failure to pay a fee when applying could…
The ‘exemption clause’ of the Children and Social Work Bill has been defeated. Royal Assent has been granted to the Children and Social Work Bill, which now becomes the Children and Social Work Act 2017. We welcome the fact that the clauses (Chapter 3 of the Bill) allowing local councils to opt-out of their legal…
Recent case law highlights the potentially harmful consequences of asylum applicants having their ages disputed. A number of recent court cases have highlighted the risks that face young asylum seekers who, after arriving in the UK, are unable to show how old they are, because, for example, they lack the requisite identification documents. Judgments on…
Syrians who are resettled in Britain will finally be recognised as refugees by the UK Government. The Home Office has announced that Syrian refugees who are being resettled here will now be granted refugee status, rather than humanitarian protection. This will enable Syrians to access university and to travel more easily to visit relatives in other European…
We are deeply saddened to hear the news that Professor Sir Nigel Rodley, one of Coram Children’s Legal Centre’s patrons, has passed away. Professor Rodley was one of the ‘founding fathers’ of the human rights movement and dedicated his career to combating human rights violations. He was a member of the UN Human Rights Committee, and…
Today the House of Lords will debate an amendment to the Immigration Bill calling for the resettlement of 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children to the UK. When calling for support for his amendment, Lord Dubs has compared the situation now to that in 1938 and 1939, when the UK was the only European country to permit Kinderstransport children to enter. Certainly it…
‘Undocumented children are triply vulnerable, as migrants, as persons in an irregular situation and as children. The laws tend to tackle their situation from a migration and status standpoint, and not from a child viewpoint’ Council of Europe A recent estimate put the number of undocumented migrant children in the UK at 120,000, with over…