Resources

2021 was a year of consolidation for the Asylum Aid team following its re-establishment as a charity in its own right as part of the Helen Bamber Foundation group in August 2020. The focus of the charity’s work remained on providing expert legal representation in the most complex cases going through the asylum and trafficking systems. The ongoing public health crisis as a result of the coronavirus pandemic continued to pose challenges both for the delivery of our services and for our clients, where ongoing delays in decision-making by the Home Office resulted in increased vulnerability to exploitation, abuse and re-trafficking.

We have applied for an urgent interim injunction to stop the government flying refugees to Rwanda until our application for judicial review can be heard. The interim injunction application was made today on the charity’s behalf by law firm Leigh Day. The injunction seeks to prevent any flights taking place, including the one scheduled on Tuesday 14 June 2022, until an application for judicial review of the procedures and arrangements in place to send refugees to Rwanda can be heard by the court.

The government is seeking to introduce a Bill of Rights that would significantly reduce the protections afforded to certain groups, including refugees and survivors of trafficking. The government’s proposals will not only harm the most marginalised but will undermine the human rights protections available to us all.

Asylum Aid's Statelessness Pro Bono partnership with a network of 12 global law firms has been recognised by the LawWorks Annual Pro Bono Awards under the category of Most Effective Pro Bono Partnership. The partnership has been running since 2018 and consists of a large-scale collaborative pro bono project tackling the complex issue of statelessness in the UK. Asylum Aid's legal team works closely with lawyers across the 12 firms, to train, share experiences and suggestions to ensure each application is successful.

We were delighted to hear that Asylum Aid's Pro Bono project, bringing together a collaborative network of city law firms to work on complex Statelessness cases won The Law Society's award for Excellence in Pro Bono this year.  The group consists of 12 global law firms: Akin Gump, Ashurst, Cooley, Dentons, Freshfields, Latham & Watkins, Morrison & Foerster, O'Melveny, Orrick, Reed Smith, Skadden and White & Case.

We put together a response to the Ministry of Justice's call for evidence on Legal Aid and asylum appeals under the online procedure. 

This policy briefing addresses issues relating to asylum applications in the UK by persons who fear persecution relating to their sexual or gender identity or expression.

People who do not comply with sexual or gender identity or expression (SOGIE) norms continue to face persecution in many parts of the world:

Asylum Aid is committed to ensuring that vulnerable people who use our services are not abused and that working practices minimise the risk of such abuse.

This is a collection of personal reflections from Deborah Singer MBE about the Women's Project at Asylum Aid. 

When the Women's Project suggested providing childcare during asylum interviews, the Home Office laughed. Now they provide childcare across the UK.

When we suggested female asylum seekers be automatically allocated female interviewers for their asylum interviews, the Home Office said this was operationally impossible. Now they tell us that their pilot in Glasgow proved very successful.

 

Asylum Aid is committed to ensuring that all children are not abused and that working practices minimise the risk of such abuse. The purpose of this policy statement is:

 

• To protect all children and young people, including the children of adults who use Asylum Aid's services, from harm.
• To provide staff and volunteers, as well as children, young people and their families, with the overarching principles that guide our approach to child protection.

 

Please see the full policy in the document below.

A leaflet created by the Protection Gap Advocates for legal representatives. 

As Protection Gap Advocates we are a diverse group of women who have all had our own experience of the asylum process.

We want to make a difference for other women seeking asylum and are working to improve the asylum experience for them. 

We believe that lawyers can help their women clients by giving them the following information. We are aware many lawyers already do this but we hope this will serve as a helpful reminder.