CJ McKinney
@cjmckinney
Parliamentary adviser on immigration and asylum. Child of the Common Travel Area. Views, if any, are my own.
Quite a lot of House of Commons business now lined up for this afternoon, so the Immigration and Asylum Bill won't be debated until well into the evening.
Widely described as a "loophole", but it is more "what the act explicitly and deliberately says" www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1971/7...
Interesting @joshuarozenberg.bsky.social point about replacing immigration judges with adjudicators, who would not need legal expertise: people who would otherwise become magistrates in the criminal courts might become immigration adjudicators instead rozenberg.substack.com/p/fining-mig...
This is also the “loophole” for which many of the Windrush generation qualify, which may complicate things slightly
€300 euro for a visa extension - half nothing compared to fees in the UK www.dublininquirer.com/amid-delays-...
Ahead of tomorrow’s immigration bill to make it harder for migrants to get UK residence rights using human rights laws, the government has released estimates of how much those people cost the state once accepted www.gov.uk/government/p...
New Lords committee report on the UK’s proposed changes to the system for earning permanent residence, and discussing settlement/citizenship more generally committees.parliament.uk/committee/51...
Shadow Home Secretary Andy Burnham pays tribute to the work of Keir Starmer in debating the Immigration Bill 2015/16 hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2015...
Common Travel Area controversy, 1962: the leader of the American Nazi Party arrives via Ireland for a National Socialism conference. "It now also looks as if a whole regiment of Nazis could sneak in by the back door from Ireland without being challenged by Britain". www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/9/...
Rwanda loses international arbitration case against the UK arguing that it was still owed £100 million under the abandoned deal for relocating asylum seekers pcacases.com/web/sendAtta...
Record number of overseas applications for British passports in early 2026 - presumably because the Home Office began insisting that dual nationals need one to travel to the UK (rather than using their Australian or Canadian passport, say)
New from the ONS: "it is not correct to say that our migration statistics show a recent rise in emigration of British nationals. Instead, changes to the way we estimate Brits moving into and out of the UK have made a previously incomplete picture more accurate". www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...
Governments signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights have issued a joint statement on how it applies to "migration-related challenges" which "may weaken public confidence" in the ECHR. It doesn't change the law, though. www.coe.int/en/web/porta...
As expected, the King's Speech legislative programme includes a forthcoming bill on reforming/tightening asylum and human rights law www.gov.uk/government/p...
Population change in Europe over the last 20 years, according to the International Organization for Migration
Good point well made on the big tension within the asylum system, from the new @msumption.bsky.social book
The Home Office is supposed to publish reports by the immigration and borders inspector within eight weeks of receiving them. One report has been waiting almost a year. www.gov.uk/government/n...
Sustained fall in overall family visa applications since the special, free route for immediate family of refugees was "paused" in September www.gov.uk/government/s...
Ukrainians in the UK can now extend their special visas for another two years, on top of the 18-month extensions already available, under changes to the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme in force from today. www.gov.uk/guidance/app...
Forget Denmark: the asylum system really worth looking at is in Switzerland, a new report argues www.smf.co.uk/publications...
Fresh decision in 'chicken nugget' deportation case www.breakingnews.ie/world/vulner...
National Audit Office conclusions on the Afghan resettlement scheme, from a report out today: www.nao.org.uk/reports/inve...
Update on UK-EU youth mobility visa negotiations observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
Interesting on the trend in enforcing work visa rules: even if no inspector turns up in person, you're still being inspected www.birketts.co.uk/legal-update...
What triggers the UK government to ban people from certain countries from getting work or study visas? The new 'visa brake' policy is explained below. From this impact assessment, as spotted by @msumption.bsky.social: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69a9a3...