This week, April 1st 2025, Migrants Organise launched a new report highlighting how the crisis in legal aid is leaving people without good quality legal advice and representation at a time when they need it most.
Good legal advice is vital for anyone navigating Britain’s hostile immigration system. But after 30 years of government neglect the legal aid system is in crisis, and reliable, publicly-funded advice has become harder to find.
Our new report, Threadbare: The Quality of Immigration Legal Aid, investigates the causes and shares the untold impact of the declining quality of legal aid services.
The report is a collaboration with South London Refugee Association, Haringey Migrant Support Centre, NACCOM, Refugee Action and Migrants Organise.
“It took me 8 months to find a lawyer, and I sent over 50 emails to different solicitors. Legal aid should be available no matter how much money you have or your immigration status.” Moses, Migrants Organise Member
The report sets out the challenges in accessing and providing good-quality legal aid services in immigration and strengthens our demands for a bolder and sustainable legal aid system.
The report highlights
- Legal Aid is a vital public service. It’s about care, compassion and dignity. We all deserve access to trusted legal advice and support.
- Reliable, trusted and publicly-funded advice has become harder to find. The report lays bare the challenges in accessing and providing good-quality legal aid services in immigration.
- After years of underfunding, we need a bolder and deeper commitment from government to build a sustainable legal aid system
- It’s time to end the hostile environment. For migrants, life has become a maze of complex anti-migrant rules and enforcement. There have been at least 6000 changes to immigration rules since 2010! It’s a system designed to be hostile.
It’s astounding that the legal aid system had not, until recently, seen a funding increase since 1996. Whilst we welcomed the news that this government would provide more funding to the legal aid system- in reality spending on legal aid is still lower than it was in 2010!
After 30 years of neglect we know this scale of the crisis requires a deeper commitment. In 1949, 80% of the population’s of England and Wales were eligible for legal aid, but this had severely declined to just 25% of the population being eligible in 2016.
For people seeking asylum having access to legal advice can be a lifeline. But, in 2024 a staggering 57% of people seeking asylum in the UK did not have access to legal aid. In the context of hostile and cruel immigration policies alongside austerity cuts to social welfare – this is a recipe for poverty and pain.
This report is a call for dignity and further evidence demonstrating the harm hostile immigration policies are having on our communities.
Francis Timberlake, Access to Justice Organiser, says
“At Migrants Organise we see everyday how vulnerable people are forced into poverty and trauma through a combination of a cruel immigration system and absence of legal support. In this hostile climate, having legal advice is vital to rebuilding a life here, instead people are facing homelessness, destitution and even deportation. This year alone we have made 438 referrals to legal aid services, but only 9 have been accepted.
It doesn’t have to be this way- the government needs to go further and listen deeply to the accounts of people who have been left behind, without access to legal advice. Our communities will be better for it.”
Migrants Organise has been organising for a fairer more sustainable legal aid system for many years – this is a campaign about care and dignity. We’re connecting lawyers, community groups, charities and social justice workers to call for a legal aid system that truly delivers access to justice.
Download the report.
Migrants Organise provides a platform for refugees and migrants to organise for power, dignity and justice. We combine advice and support for individuals subjected to hostile immigration policies with grassroots organising, advocacy and campaigning. Our big vision is a welcoming society based on principles of dignity, justice and solidarity. Sign up to our newsletter.
