Almost half of asylum seekers are unable to access legal aid, figures suggest

Almost half of those applying for asylum in the UK are unable to access legal aid, analysis of new figures suggests. The Home Office has come under pressure in recent days due to overcrowding at Manston immigration processing centre in Kent. Concerns have also been raised about the speed that asylum cases are being processed, with only four per cent of people who arrived in small boats in 2021 getting a decision on their claims. Now new figures shed a light on the difficulties faced by those caught up in the system. Dr Jo Wilding, researcher at Sussex University, analysed the shortfall between the number of new asylum applications and the number of new immigration and asylum legal aid matters being opened. In 2020-21 she found there was a deficit of at least 6,000. However, the situation in 2021-22 was much worse, with a deficit of at least 25,000 between provision and need. A solicitor at Vauxhall community law and information centre, said her firm regularly sees ‘destiture migrants’ who need legal help.This means that in the past year in England and Wales almost half of the main applicants who claimed asylum did not have a legal aid representative. According to Freedom of Information data from the Ministry of Justice, 32,714 legal aid matters were opened in the year up to August 2022. However, there were 63,089 asylum applications by main applicants (not including any dependent family members) in the year up to June 2022. Accounting for 4,000-6,000 people being accommodated in Scotland, that leaves at least 25,000 people without help. There is also widely varying access to legal aid across the country, with some regions having no firms offering legal aid for asylum claims at all. Asylum seekers were reportedly transferred by coach from Manston centre to hotels in Norwich this week. However, there is no legal advice in the entire country of Norfolk, nor in Suffolk or Essex. The closest legal aid provision is almost four hours away in Luton, Dr Wilding found. Mike Brooker, immigration and asylum solicitor at Bristol Law Centre, said: ‘Providers who are giving specialist immigration advice are already inundated with requests for assistance… and we are constantly having to turn away work. People board a bus inside the migrant processing centre, during the visit of Suella Braverman, in Manston’This is true for Bristol and the picture is even more stark in Devon and Cornwall where large numbers of asylum seekers have been dispersed by the government into a legal aid advice desert.’Siobhan Taylor-Ward, solicitor at Vauxhall community law and information centre, said her firm regularly sees ‘destitute migrants’ who need legal help. ‘We regularly see the harm caused by a lack of immigration advice as regularly people become destitute after applications are made without the correct information or evidence,’ she said. Nimrod Ben-Cnaan, head of policy at the Law Centres Network, said that the situation ‘continues to deteriorate’, adding that the asylum and justice systems were ‘crying out for reform and investment’. ‘In the meantime, thousands of lives are in limbo, awaiting their fate in near-destitution, banned from working to support themselves and neglected by the government they have turned to for help.’The home secretary Suella Braverman is facing continued pressure about her department’s handling of asylum seekers in Manston, Kent. It emerged on Friday that some Home Office contractors had been disciplined after trying to sell cannabis to asylum seekers at the site. The department said that the ‘individuals involved in this incident were swiftly removed from the site.’Manston asylum seekers have also been turning up at Victoria coach station with nowhere to go, after being abandoned there by the Home Office. The department said that people were only taken to Victoria if they assured officials that they had someone to stay, but a number of asylum seekers have slept overnight near the station and had to be supported by homelessness charities. Home Office minister Chris Philp said the groups of migrants from Manston left stranded in London was a result of a ‘misunderstanding.’The policing minister told Sky News: ‘There are two groups of people and what I’ve been told by the people on the immigration side of the Home Office is that both groups of people told immigration officials at Manston they had addresses to go to, so friends and family.’Obviously, that turned out subsequently not to be the case.’Clearly that understanding was not accurate, quite how that misunderstanding arose, maybe it was lost in translation, I don’t know, but clearly they have now all been looked after.’Tim Naor Hilton, CEO of Refugee Action, said: ‘That half of people seeking asylum are unable to access legal aid is disgraceful, yet sadly not expected. ‘Poor legal advice and representation can have very serious consequences for people seeking asylum, often negatively affecting the outcome of their claim but also leading to destitution, homelessness, isolation, and poor mental and physical health.’The Independent has approached the Ministry of Justice for comment.