Lack of legal aid puts asylum seekers' lives at risk, charity warns

The lives of people seeking asylum are being put at risk as they struggle to access free legal advice for which they are eligible, a leading refugee charity has warned.

Asylum cases were protected from cuts to legal aid provision in 2012 but as all other areas of immigration law were removed there was a subsequent plunge in the number of legal aid providers in areas of asylum law, Refugee Action has found.

In addition, changes made in 2006 to the way legal aid providers are paid, so they are paid by unit of work and not by the hour, have also discouraged providers from taking up the cases – and when they do they spend less time on them.

As a result, “legal aid deserts” have emerged in different parts of the country due to a 56% drop in the number of providers offering legal aid representation for immigration and asylum cases since 2005, the charity found.

There was an even greater reduction in the number of not-for-profit providers, with only 36% remaining in 2018 compared with the number in 2005.

In its report, Tipping the Scales, Access to Justice in the Asylum System, Refugee Action said for people seeking asylum, such advice could mean the difference between being sent back to a country where they face certain death or being given the opportunity to successfully rebuild their life in safety.

Stephen Hale, the chief executive of Refugee Action, said: “A fair and effective asylum system depends on those fleeing conflict and persecution having access to good quality legal advice and independent information.

“However, our research shows that drastic cuts in legal aid provision are tipping the scales of justice and putting lives at risk. The government must act now to ensure the legal aid system is fit for purpose.”

The report found 26 local authority areas with more than 100 people seeking asylum have no local legal aid provision, and in 46 local authority areas the number of people seeking asylum exceeds the number of cases legal aid solicitors can provide by more than 100.

As part of the research, Refugee Action and NACCOM (the No Accommodation Network) surveyed 92 organisations about their experiences referring people they work with to legal aid-funded immigration solicitors.

Eighty-seven per cent said they were finding it more difficult to refer people to legal aid solicitors than six years ago and 76% of organisations that responded said they found it either quite difficult or very difficult to refer people on to legal aid solicitors.

Refugee Action and NACCOM have called on the government to carry out a comprehensive public review of legal aid provision.

Hazel Williams, the national director of NACCOM, said: “Frontline organisations in our network are too often finding it impossible to refer people seeking asylum to legal aid solicitors.

“For those in the asylum system, being able to access legal advice can mean the difference between being sent back to a country where they face certain death or being given the opportunity to live safely in the UK.”

Legal aid cuts were introduced by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government in 2012 under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act, which was met with derision from the legal sector.

The graduated fees scheme, which changed the way in which legal aid work was paid, was introduced under the Labour government in 2006.