In London, demand for immigration advice far outstrips supply. Some boroughs in London have so little advice that they are considered as ‘desert boroughs’ and research by Paul Hamlyn Foundation found that there is capacity for just 4,300 first-time adult asylum applicants per year and 1,235 unaccompanied children seeking asylum per year.
People seeking asylum and other forms of immigration support often come to front-line charities at a time of crisis. If people cannot access the vital support they need, many are at risk of exploitation, trafficking and other forms of abuse. It is therefore essential to increase capacity in the capital.
At Asylum Aid, we believe frontline organisations play a vital role in helping some of the most marginalised people access immigration advice, and it is essential that they receive the support they need to continue this work.
That's why, in partnership with Refugee Action and Praxis, Asylum Aid delivers the Migrant Justice Greater London (MJGL) Programme, training for Immigration Advice Authority (IAA) registered advisors (Level 1) at grassroot organisations in London to increase capacity for the immigration advice sector.
By working with front-line charities led by those with lived experience of the immigration system, we ensure more Londoners can access life-changing access to justice.
“Getting the support for one of our caseworkers has been life-changing and enormous. I can’t describe it with words.” - MJGL participant
Since we launched the programme in 2022, we are proud to have supported over 12 organisations.
- Participants report feeling more confident in taking new cases and knowing how to support clients and manage a case.
- Participants gain a sense of being part of a wider movement and feel less alone.
- Organisations that were not previously providing any immigration advice have become IAA registered and started embedding best practice case management systems
- More people can now access quality advice through frontline services, rather than being referred onwards, which has led to more positive immigration outcomes for those people.
“Supervision and the support was crucial for the organisation and for me in particular. Before that I didn’t feel confident in doing this work, and I didn’t feel confident to start doing complex cases [...] the support gave me confidence, saved me time, stopped me from feeling isolated which is really easy to feel when you work on your own and don’t know if things are correct.” - MJGL participant
Transformative 1:1 supervision supporting individuals focussing on clients within the asylum system
Our supervision enables skills to be developed but also confidence and motivation for driving forwards new casework capacity and quality. We also provide fortnightly drop-in sessions to discuss casework issues and client queries.
“I couldn’t have had better support to be honest. I don’t know how I could fault it. What I also really liked about Sophie was that she treated me as an equal, which is so important. Some people don’t [...] She modelled good practice.” MJGL participant
Opportunities to shadow our specialist advisors at our Trauma Centre
Where possible, participants attend client meetings, court hearings, and talk to the wider Asylum Aid team about their areas of specialism
Attend training events driven by topics chosen by partner organisations
Tailored workshops and help to register with the IAA where relevant for participating organisations.
Become part of our Communities of Practice & receive peer support
Peer support is a key programme component that helps participants with preparation for IAA exams, sharing resources and sector updates. Community of Practice sessions allow advisors to discuss specific issues around individual cases as well as look at procedural issues which may be affecting individuals or their organisations.
“Really really useful – we are a small organisation with new tasks and we are very cautious about giving bad advice. Having those sessions every two weeks has been brilliant. We get updates on changes, we discuss anything, we learn a lot.” MJGL participant
“I went into the Asylum Aid office quite frequently. That was really nice to go in and see things – just seeing other people, seeing clients was great [...] It’s being in that ‘power house of expertise’ [...] It gave me an emotional boost.” - MJGL participant