Our history
Asylum Aid was founded in 1990 to complement the campaigning work of the organisation Rights and Justice. We were established to ensure that specialist legal advice and representation was accessible to individuals seeking asylum in the UK. In the twenty years since, we have represented and advised more than 30,000 people.
| "Asylum Aid was the brainchild of a remarkable group of people: the philanthropist and newspaperman David Astor; Ernest Morton, a Jewish refugee from the Nazis who became a Quaker; and Mary Dines, an activist who had latterly worked for Rights and Justice ..." Alasdair Mackenzie, Asylum Aid 1990-2002 |  |
From its earliest days, the cases taken up by Asylum Aid generated a wealth of information about the UK's asylum process. This prompted the development of Asylum Aid's policy and campaigning work. As the number of asylum seekers grew during the 1990s, so Asylum Aid's work increased - and as the work increased, so did Asylum Aid's reputation for the effectiveness and integrity of its legal services and campaigning.
This gave Asylum Aid the distinctive role we continue today. Firstly, we focus on the legal process at the heart of the asylum system and, in particular, on the problems facing the most vulnerable and excluded asylum seekers. Secondly, we make sure that our frontline casework informs the way that we campaign.
This integrated approach is well represented in all our work, but especially in the progress of the Women's Project at Asylum Aid. Established in 2000 to highlight deficiencies in the way that women are treated when they seek asylum in the UK, the Project provides a unique blend of legal casework, research, training, campaigning and policy work.
We have subsequently developed our expertise arguing for the benefits of quality legal advice at the beginning of all asylum claims, and the specific needs of stateless people in the UK. On these and other issues, the work goes on.
Asylum Aid is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee