Post by Dan Dare on Jul 5, 2023 13:31:35 GMT
The government has been very quietly canvassing 'stakeholders' concerning legal fees for asylum seekers who fall foul of the Illegal Immigrants legislation now going through Parliament. Apparently they have been persuaded by arguments by the legal industry that current legal aid rates will be insufficient to provide adequate representation for the many thousands who will seek to challenge asylum decisions and potential deportation orders (to Rwanda, for example).
Consequently the government has been floating the idea of a 15% increase in legal aid for such cases but this has been firmly rejected by the Law Society amongst others:
"Lubna Shuja, the Law Society’s president, said the pay rise will not deal with the shortage of immigration lawyers in the system.
“There is a severe lack of capacity in the asylum and immigration sector, with many asylum seekers dispersed to areas with no legal aid provision, and a growing asylum backlog,” she said. “The proposed fee increase alone, which will only be for those who have received a removal notice under the illegal migration bill, is not going to address this capacity crisis.”
“There is a severe lack of capacity in the asylum and immigration sector, with many asylum seekers dispersed to areas with no legal aid provision, and a growing asylum backlog,” she said. “The proposed fee increase alone, which will only be for those who have received a removal notice under the illegal migration bill, is not going to address this capacity crisis.”
Echoing the refrain, Jeremy Bloom, of Duncan Lewis, the UK’s largest legal aid firm doing asylum and immigration work, and which has thousands of asylum cases, said:
“We have already made it clear to the Ministry of Justice that the current legal aid system is unworkable, and that with regret, we will be unable to provide legal services to people facing removal under the illegal migration bill at anything like the scale that will be required.
“Drastic change is required to ensure access to justice for individuals affected by the bill and all others who require and are eligible for civil legal aid. The MoJ’s proposals do little more than fiddle around at the edges of a massive and ever-growing legal aid representation gap.”
“Drastic change is required to ensure access to justice for individuals affected by the bill and all others who require and are eligible for civil legal aid. The MoJ’s proposals do little more than fiddle around at the edges of a massive and ever-growing legal aid representation gap.”
And there we all were, thinking these lawyer firms were doing all this good work for failed asylum seekers out of the goodness of their hearts.
