Resources

This response to the Ministry of Justice's consultation on civil legal aid draws on HBF’s experience of supporting clients in London who are represented by, or eligible for representation by, legal aid representatives for their asylum and/or immigration matters under the Standard Civil Contract. It draws and builds on our previous submission of February 2024 to the Review of Civil Legal Aid, and includes client data and testimonials from our Ambassadors for Change.

This new report shows that child refugees who come to the UK alone are continuing to face harassment, abuse and criminalisation as a result of being wrongly treated as adults and placed in accommodation with adult strangers.  In the first half of 2024 alone, 63 local authorities in England and Scotland received 603 referrals from various stakeholders who suspected young people were being wrongly placed in adult accommodation or detention due to inaccurate Home Office age assessments. In 493 cases where a decision was made on age, over half cases (262) were found to be children.

While we welcome the parts of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill that repeal the Safety of Rwanda Act 2024 and parts of the Illegal Migration Act 2023, the Bill does not go far enough to undo the harmful legislation that has been introduced in recent years. We are alarmed by the introduction of yet further criminal offences that could easily be applied to refugees as opposed to smugglers and traffickers.

This briefing provides an overview of the mental health issues faced by people who are seeking protection in the UK, including survivors of trafficking, and their treatment needs. It then looks at the experiences of Helen Bamber Foundation clients who are Albanian nationals and the risks they might face if forcibly returned to Albania.

There have been several positive developments under the Labour government, including decisions to scrap the Rwanda plan; to not open Scampton; to close Bibby Stockholm; and the decision to progress the asylum claims that had been put on hold. Yet, there is currently no firm plan or timeline for the closure of Wethersfield, despite the Prime Minister committing to do so before the general election and extensive evidence of the harm the site causes to those moved there.

This joint briefing with Asylum Aid, Asylum Matters, Care 4 Calais, Doctors of the World, Humans for Rights Network and the Immigration Law Practitioners Association examines the existing barriers to accessing quality legal advice in RAF Wethersfield and makes a number of practical recommendations.

The current eligibility criteria results in the barring of many children, amongst the most economically disadvantaged in the UK, from Healthy Start. They are thus put at further risk of suffering a nutritional deficit with long term impact on their health and wellbeing. This submission outlines why the Healthy Start scheme should be extended to all families with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF).

This submission outlines concerns about Home Office contact management with people seeking asylum, including the imposition of reporting conditions on extremely vulnerable individuals, including those with mental and/or physical disabilities and survivors of torture and trafficking, and poor communication with those in asylum accommodation.

Once a person has been officially recognised as a ‘victim of trafficking’, the Home Office should automatically consider whether they should be given a grant of leave to remain in the UK. But last year our research revealed that a shockingly low number of confirmed survivors of trafficking had received this. Instead, they were left in limbo and reliant on the asylum system as a safety net.

Year after year, the Helen Bamber Foundation (HBF) has provided detailed evidence to the Home Office explaining why the meagre financial support given to people seeking asylum denies them their basic needs. This has a terrible impact on their mental health and impedes their recovery from trauma, torture and abuse. But every year, the rates are barely revised. If at all, they are increased by an amount so insignificant that it hardly makes a dent in their experiences of poverty.

For far too long, the Home Office has been detaining survivors of trafficking and modern slavery in ‘immigration removal centres’ after they have been wrongly convicted for offences their traffickers forced them to commit or after they have been found not to have permission to stay in the UK. Although most are later released (their detention having served no purpose), people can be held indefinitely. The harm this causes is profound and often irreparable.