IAS closes leaving thousands of migrants and asylum seekers without legal advice
The Immigration Advisory Service (IAS), the largest provider of state-funded legal advice on immigration and asylum in the UK, announced this week that it had been placed into administration. The charity, which has existed for 35 years and employs 300 people in 14 locations across England and Scotland, has assisted some 10,000 people in pursuing asylum and immigration cases before the British courts, the Court of Justice of the European Union, and the European Court of Human Rights.
This is the result of dramatic cuts to legal aid in the UK. The Government has eliminated legal aid for immigration and has reduced the legal aid budget by 10% for those seeking asylum in the UK. Last summer another immigration advice charity, Refugee Migrant Justice (RMJ), collapsed in the UK and accused the government of undermining its work by delaying legal aid payments. Most of RMJ’s clients, who were transferred to IAS, as well as IAS clients themselves, will now be left without any legal representative to guide them through the asylum and migration procedures.
This is yet another blow severe blow to civil liberties as a consequence of draconian cutbacks on expenditure initiated by the former Labour Government and progressed by the current coalition Government. Lack of funding by the Legal Services Commission in Immigration and Asylum work has meant that many people are unable to locate a publicly funded firm of solicitors willing to take on their immigration cases for them, leaving some of the most vulnerable people in society open to systematic abuses and without the benefit of legal advice or representation. We are now being consulted more than ever by migrants and asylum seekers looking for legal advice and representation. Due to the lack of public funding we do not accept Legal Aid work in relation to immigration matters. This means that we have to charge our clients for the work we do on their behalf. However; as one of the most progressive and forward thinking lawfirms currently involved in imigration law and with our excellent track record of success in helping our clients we always strive to maintain our fees and costs as low as possible so as many people as possible are able to afford our services.
