We are feeling the relentless impacts of not having a functioning legal aid system. People across our communities still cannot find lawyers when they’re facing urgent immigration problems, and the lawyers we know are at breaking point in their work. The Hostile Environment was designed to make settling in the UK as difficult as possible. Most migrants are now reliant on legal advice to navigate the immigration system, yet cuts to legal aid have meant they can’t access this.
Alongside JCWI and many others, we’re calling for change. Read and share the new joint briefing from 71 organisations, Securing Access to Justice: The Need for Legal Aid in Immigration here.
In the briefing we share the following recommendations:
• Cross-departmental solutions to a cross-departmental issue – overhaul the hostile
approach to migration policy-making thereby decreasing reliance on legal aid.
• Ensure those in need of legal aid can access it – expand the scope of cases covered by
legal aid to what it was before 2012.
• Urgently increase legal aid fee rates to ensure practitioners are paid for their work
and to avoid knock-on costs elsewhere.
• End ‘legal aid deserts’ – ensure that there are legal aid providers available across the
country, not just in certain regions.
Full list of co-signatories:
Action for Refugees in Lewisham
Asylum Support Appeals Project
Ashton Churches Asylum Project
Assist Sheffield
Asylos
Asylum Aid
Asylum Matters
Bail for Immigration Detainees
BEACON
Boaz Trust
Bristol Law Centre
City of Sanctuary Sheffield
Daaro Youth Project
Darlington Assistance for Refugees
Detention Action
Devon and Cornwall Refugee Support
Doncaster Conversation Club
End Violence Against Women Coalition
Freedom From Torture
Gatwick Detainee Visitors Group
Gloucesteshire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (GARAS)
Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit
Happy Baby Community
Helen Bamber Foundation
HIAS+JCORE
Hibiscus
Haringey Migrant Support Centre
Hope for Justice
Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association
Jesuit Refugee Service
Kalayaan
Latin American Women’s Rights Service
Lewisham Refugee & Migrant Network
Manchester Refugee Support Network
Manuel Bravo Project
Micro Rainbow
Migrant Legal Project
NACCOM – The No Accommodation Network
North Yorkshire Citizens Advice & Law Centre
One Strong Voice
Penrith and Eden Refugee Network
Public Law Project
Project 17
Reclaim the Sea
Refugee Action
Refugee Action York
Refugee and Migrant Centre – Birmingham
Refugee Asylum Seeker and Migrant Action
Refugee Legal Support
Refugee Support Devon
Refugee Support Group Berkshire
Refugees at Home
Right to Remain
RootsMove
Samphire
Southeast and East Asian Centre
South London Refugee Association
Southall Black Sisters
Southampton and Winchester Visitors’ Group
South Yorkshire Refugee Law and Justice
St Augustines Centre Halifax
Together with Migrant Children
Upbeat
Voices in Exile
Waging Peace
West London Welcome
Women for Refugee Women
Work Rights Centre
Young Roots
Migrants Organise
JCWI
