Thousands of refugees and asylum-seekers were left without legal support today after the overnight closure of Britain's largest immigration advice service.
The Immigration Advisory Service (IAS) closed its doors on Friday with workers only finding out it had gone into administration when they arrived for work this week.
The closure has been blamed on changes to the legal aid system imposed by the Legal Services Commission (LSC) which previously forced the closure of specialist legal firm Refugee and Migrant Justice last year.
IAS, a not-for-profit charity, had been the largest provider of legal aid in the asylum and immigration market.
It ran 14 offices across England and Scotland and operated outreach services in a number of different locations nationwide.
While IAS was not available for comment a post on the LSC website today stated: "Today, Immigration Advisory Service (IAS) announced that they have gone into administration.
"Our priority now is to work closely with IAS and the administrators to ensure clients of IAS continue to get the help they need, whilst safeguarding public money. We are now identifying alternative advice provision in the areas affected and arrangements for case transfer will follow as soon as possible."
Commenting on the news, Refugee Council chief executive Donna Covey said: "We were alarmed to hear news that the largest charity providing legal advice and representation for asylum-seekers has closed.
"After the sad loss of Refugee and Migrant Justice last year, this news from the IAS is hugely significant and very worrying and we are following events closely.
"Our clients already struggle to find good-quality legal representation.
"This development will only add to their difficulties."
A spokesman for the Law Society said: "While Parliament debates further cuts in legal aid, today's news of the collapse of IAS has left thousands of clients stranded.
"This is the true impact of funding cuts.
"The government claims that not-for-profit organisations like IAS will fill the gaps in public service provision.
"The fact that this is the second such collapse in the sector in less than a year shows that these claims are little more than wishful thinking."
1 comments:
I'm at the first time on your blog! Law Office of Yevgen Dankanych
Post a Comment