These providers were told these results this past week. Many were also reported to be disappointed over the number of new cases, or new matter starts (NMS), they have been allocated. One London firm even told LAG that they had been allocated less than half of the emigration cases and only 70 percent of the asylum cases they had applied for.

According to reports from Legal Aid Practitioners Group, which actually represents both solicitor firms and nonprofit legal aid providers, some groups are facing closure due to not being allocated sufficient matter starts to make their service viable. The NMS has mostly been allocated to providers and geographical areas that applied for blocks of them.

LAG has estimated that between 30 percent to 40 percent of providers have had the number of NMS allocated to them reduced. This situation is particularly bad in London, as LAG understands the LSC, which actually administers the legal aid system for the government, received applications for double the number of NMS available.

A spokesman for the LSC told LAG that the overall number of NMS for emigration and asylum seeker cases had not been reduce. He said that in most areas these cases had been oversubscribed for the ones available.

Apparently the LSC said that 47,744 NMS for emigration cases and 48,761 NMS for asylum cases have been awarded in the tender round. Thus, the LSC believes that there is no right to appeal against decisions on the number of NMS allocated, and providers can only appeal against a decision not to grant them a contract.

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Hanson’s revealed the move in an interview with Australian Woman’s Day magazine, where the often controversial and polarising figure detailed the sale of her house in Queensland and desire to bid farewell Australia for good. Hanson told Woman’s Day that this would be her goodbye forever.

Hanson claims her decision was due to a desire for peace and contentment, something that she has found difficult in her political career which has been shaped by her conservative right-wing policies. She is most famous for her maiden parliamentary address where she cautioned that Australia would be overrun by Asians. Hanson herself had also been a leading advocate for reductions in immigration.

The fiery politician went on to suggest that Australia, which once was seen as a land of opportunity, has deteriorated so far that young people now are growing into an over-taxed and over-regulated society which no longer is a true representation of the country. Hanson also cites the timidity of Australia’s politicians to address the real issues as contributing to her departure.

Hanson’s political career has stalled in recent years. She ran as an independent in the 2009 Queensland state elections, where she lost the Beaudesert seat. Hanson had also previously run for a Queensland senate position in 2007 with similar lack of success, leading her to admit that she would not likely be voted into any position in the future.

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The traditional green hand-written Philippine passport will soon be a thing of the past as the March 31st date issued by the international Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) for the end of non-machine readable passports draws ever closer. From this date, member countries will no longer be able to issue such passports although the older versions are still valid up until the changeover.

As from the 1st of April 2010 the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, along with all Philippine Consulates General, DFA Regional Consular Offices and Embassies will only be issuing passports that are machine readable.

UK-based Filipinos have been urged to obtain the new passports prior to the change-over date to avoid complications by Consul General Ma. Theresa Dizon-De Vega. De Vega has stated that the new machine-readable passports would provide greater security features including, amongst others, holographic laminates and bar codes to prevent tampering. Passports have a long history of fraud and counterfeiting by criminal gangs but the new versions will theoretically prevent this. De Vega also pointed out that visas across several European countries may not be issued to those travelling on the old, non-machine readable passports.

Any Filipino who has a lost or expired passport can make a special application through the Philippine Embassy in London for a one-way travel permission document should they need to travel back to their homeland in urgent or emergency cases.

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In the period since march 2009 all of the British educational facilities that hope to attract students from outside the EU have been forced to seek approval from the UK Border Agency for obtaining a ‘Tier 4’ operating license which would place them on the official list of authorised institutions for foreign students.

Lord West of Spithead, the Security Minister, stated that the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills formerly held a list of some 4,000 colleges which has now dwindled to just 2,000. Speaking at parliamentary question time Lord West advised peers that in the second half of 2009 15 colleges holding the Tier 4 qualification had their licenses revoked while the 600-odd inspections carried out across the country resulted in a further 140 colleges being suspended.

Lord West was asked by Conservative Lord Naseby why there still existed such a high number of bogus educational institutions that allowed illegal immigrants to travel to the UK but Lord West said that he would not accept that his government did not have the situation under control. He refused to directly answer questions relating to alleged reports that just 29 out of 66,000 Pakistani immigrants were interviewed in the nine months until September 2009 other than to say that this was only the last action in any suspicious cases.

Lord West advised that a special inspection team was deployed across the UK to visit colleges and determine whether the standard of courses offered, along with how students are managed pre and post graduation. He acknowledged that there have been bogus operators but they were being actively targeted.

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Under the Freedom of Information Act a British newspaper was able to source information which indicated that in the past four years various NHS trusts, councils and Whitehall departments have hired some 349 illegal migrant workers.

The Home Office itself has already admitted that during this period one dozen illegal foreign workers were employed by the authority charged with the prevention of such practices. 12 Africans – one Ghanaian and 11 Nigerians – were hired as part of the cleaning staff at, of all places, the UK Border Agency headquarters at Beckett House.

Furthermore, one migrant was employed as a security guard and yet another as a chef in perhaps the most delicate of all locations – the Home Office itself. The national office is considered one of the most likely targets of a terrorist attack in Britain.

In total, there were 249 illegal workers acknowledged as working across three government departments, 54 NHS Trusts and 34 local authorities in the past four years since 2006. Some of these were employed as doctors while others held teaching positions.

Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, expressed disbelief at the events particularly as the Home Office had been previously warned that the practice was widespread and potentially dangerous. Grayling called ministers complacent about the subject they are meant to oversee and argued that Home Office security was woefully inadequate.

A spokesperson for the Home Office has rubbished the claims, saying that only a dozen illegal workers had been employed across government departments – none of them in the Home Office itself.

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Paranoid schizophrenic, 41-year-old Laith Alani, was afforded the right to stay in Britain following a ruling by the judge in the case that if sent back to his homeland he would represent a danger to the Iraqi public.

Media reports, which have been giving widespread coverage to the case, confirm that an enforced deportation of Alani would be in breach of his human rights after an immigration tribunal deemed his removal would not be ethical.

The troubled Iraqi killed cosmetic surgeons Kenneth Paston and Michael Masser by stabbing them both to death at the West Yorkshire Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield in 1990. Over the past 19 years Alani has spent almost all of his time in a psychiatric hospital after he claimed that Allah had commanded him to slaughter the two NHS consultants. Alani made an appeal to the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (AIT) headed by senior immigration judge Lance Waumsley who made the decision to allow him to stay in Britain. One reason given for the decision was that the medicine used for treating Alani’s disorder would not likely be available inside Iraq. He has been on an NHS prescription for clozapine for treating his schizophrenia for the past decade after being advised it was the only recommended treatment.

Phil Woolas, the Immigration Minister, said that the UK Border Agency was vigorously opposed to any deportation appeal but acknowledged that the department was bound to honour the decision of court judges. The decision was met with understandable anger from Paton’s widow who claimed that Alani remained a danger inside the UK.

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Also announced by Mr Brown was the immediate cessation of flights between London and the Yemen’s capital Sana, which had been running twice weekly. These flights were operated by Yemenia, the national carrier, and have been suspended until such time as airport security in the gulf state has been improved. Yemen has come increasingly under the media and political spotlight in the aftermath of the attempted terror attack after the would-be bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, claimed that he was trained inside Yemen by al-Qaeda operatives.

US security and intelligence agencies, along with British immigration officials, have all come under stern rebuke for failing to share information relating to the 23-year-old Abdulmutallab. UK intelligence agencies in particular came under fire for failing to notify their US counterparts of established terrorist links held by Abdulmutallab.

In announcing the new terror watch list Mr Brown declared the move as preventative and said it would monitor those who have not previously been associated with terror-related activities but that had shown up under surveillance of been found to have interactions with suspected organisations.

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Al-Amin Kimathi was the organiser of the rally which expressed anger at the planned forced deportation of the preacher Abudullah al-Faisal but denies charges of inciting violence.

The riot itself saw some 300 violence-related arrests resulting in 141 charges of immigration offences. The remainder of the mainly ethnic Somali protestors – who the government also blamed for the violence – were eventually released without charge. The actions of the Kenyan government has led to accusations that they are stoking the fires of ethnic enmity according to human rights campaigners. To compound the confusion, the government’s decision to round up Somali’s for their involvement in the melee led to the arrest of twelve MP’s from that country. The group was released after a very strongly worded letter from the Somali government to its Kenyan

In addition to charges laid against Mr Kimathi, a further seven people are facing charges over the Nairobi riots which led to at least one confirmed death with several more expected to be confirmed in the next few days.

The Kenyan government is now investigating the causes of the riot through the state-sponsored Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights although Kimathi’s criticism of Faisal’s treatment has been well publicised.

While his lawyers claim that Kimathi caused no offence in the riots he has a history of support for the cleric Faisal who has been jailed previously in the UK for allegedly inciting the murders of Jews and Hindus.

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