UNDER WHO'S ADVICE

Refuge and Migrant Justice charity, the largest specialist provider of advice and representation to asylum seekers and other migrants, is going into administration. Severe cash flow problems are due to the funding system which delays payment of legal aid to it. A public campaign to save the legal service has gone effectively unheard. Other major charities such as Amnesty International, Mind and Barnardos also joined the campaign and wrote to ministers on RMJ’s behalf.

Major concerns have been raised about the effect of RMJ having to close, which will effectively leave 10,000 asylum seekers without legal representation including those imprisoned in immigration detention centres. This is not a funding cut as such but a bureaucratic process that has brought an organisation to its knees. RMJ will cease to operate from 23rd June.

* A dozen people were assembled outside the Legal Service Commission (who are the processing administration of RMJ) in Brighton Thursday (17th) to protest against the closure proposal