Legal aid crisis shows how utterly impossible the UK's asylum system really is: 'It's so depressing'

Venee fled rape and modern slavery, coming to the UK from Africa to seek asylum. She has just learned that her asylum case has been refused, with a decision made on the basis of a statement she wrote on her own, in a second language, without the guidance of a legal aid solicitor.

She finds herself one of an increasing number of asylum seekers who are being pushed into the appeals
process – a growing problem experts say is being made worse by the chronic underfunding of legal aid.

Big Issue has been reporting on the asylum backlog and legal aid crisis for more than a year. And the problem has not gone away. Despite Conservative efforts to clear it, and continued Labour endeavours to get it down, the tens of thousands of cases have simply popped up elsewhere. Under Labour, decisions have doubled but the percentage of asylum seekers accepted at the initial decision has fallen from 76% to 47%. From there, around three-quarters of asylum seekers who are initially refused go on to appeal.

The result is a ‘shadow backlog’, with the number of asylum seekers waiting for an appeal increasing by 500% over two years to reach 41,897. On average, they are waiting 48 weeks for a decision.

Yet there are not enough lawyers to represent them. Asylum seekers, such as Venee, have the right to legal aid – free legal representation, funded by the taxpayer. But a crisis is engulfing the sector. Before the Labour government came into power, rates of pay for immigration legal aid work had not increased in nearly 30 years – a real-terms cut of 48%. As a result, the number of solicitors taking on these cases has decreased – while asylum claims have shot up.

In November, the government pledged to increase rates, with London seeing a 29% increase – although this £20 million uplift will not come into force before the end of 2025. The government also plans to limit the time for appeals to be decided to 24 weeks.

But, months on, Big Issue has heard warnings that the lack of representation is simply shunting the
asylum backlog elsewhere, with cases not heard on their merits and a devastating impact on those at its feet.

‘I didn’t know where I was going. I didn’t have the money to sustain the baby’

Venee, whose name has been changed to protect her anonymity, arrived in the UK in 2021. In between being moved around cities and the birth of her baby in 2023, she was not able to secure a legal aid solicitor until April 2024. But within a couple of months, the solicitor told her the firm had no more funding for legal aid, and would only be able to help her pro bono. From there, they started working very slowly on the case, Venee said.

Venee kept getting interview requests from the Home Office – an asylum claim is usually determined on the basis of a set of interviews – but was not well enough to attend and did not have legal representation. The All African Women’s Group (AAWG), a self-help group of women asylum seekers based in North London, helped her to postpone the requests.

It was only when she received an eviction letter for her asylum accommodation that she realised her case had been withdrawn for failure to attend interviews. “It was horrible. It was so depressing. I have a small baby, I didn’t know where I was going. I didn’t have the money to sustain the baby,” said Venee.

She got in touch with the AAWG, who contacted her lawyer, who then sent documents saying why Venee couldn’t attend the interview. Within six days, her claim was reinstated and the Home Office said there had been a mistake. She was then told she should provide a written statement with more evidence about her case, to help the Home Office decide.

Meanwhile, Venee had been getting post-natal mental health support from NHS services. “I was going through depression. My anxieties were high,” she said. Drafting her statement took her two months. “I had to go through all these things again.”

Without a lawyer to help her, Venee said she had no option but to put the statement together herself. “It’s a criminal offence to give advice without a registration,” said Emily Burnham, a casework coordinator for Women Against Rape. “The government has set up a situation where you can’t give unregulated advice. Writing a statement in detail with someone could potentially be a criminal offence.” 

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• The asylum legal aid crisis is costing taxpayers more than you think. Here’s why

Most women at the Crossroads Women’s Centre – shared by Women Against Rape and the AAWG – are having to do things themselves, with 63% of those they’re helping not having a legal aid lawyer.

Perhaps the process might seem simple. But would any of us know which parts of our life story are
relevant to another country’s asylum criteria? Could you explain the worst things that happened to you, things you may not have fully come to terms with, in a way which lets an over-busy caseworker know that they tick the right boxes? 

The Home Office’s own guidance acknowledges that victims of trafficking or sexual assault “may suffer trauma that can impact on memory and the ability to recall information”, with symptoms including memory loss or distortion, shame and an attitude of self-blame. 

“A lawyer knows which questions to ask to help the person to explain their case within the context of asylum law,” said Burham. “If a woman who knows nothing about asylum law doesn’t have that help, how can she possibly put her story in the context of what’s needed? Knowing what’s important information is the first question. Often it starts from when someone’s a child. It’s impossible to do that properly without a lawyer.”

Then there are the things you don’t have. Without legal aid, a pro bono lawyer is not going to pay for the medical and psychological reports which support a case. Venee had tried to get these, but couldn’t. Burnham also warned that the Home Office will rely on general country reports, which detail the overall situation for issues like gender-based violence.

But a legal aid solicitor can gather information on whether it is safe for people, like Venee, who are in a particular situation. “It’s impossible to win your case without a lawyer,” said Burnham. “It’s impossible to have a fair hearing without a lawyer. Asylum is a legal system. It has very complex case law and international law. The idea that it’s something that could ever be done fairly without a lawyer is insane.”

So Venee’s case was refused. Her lawyer, still ticking over with no funding, has said that they will lodge the appeal paperwork, but cannot help beyond that.

‘It’s one of the last chances for their cases to be heard’

“Increasingly it is impossible for initial asylum seekers to find legal aid representatives,” said Isaac Abraham, a legal aid solicitor at Islington Law Centre. The vast majority of clients he represents, he said, he has taken on at the appeal stage – their lawyer will have dropped them, or they’ve had no representation until then. 

“The backlog has quite effectively been displaced away from the Home Office to the courts and tribunal system,” Abraham added. “For the client appealing, it’s one of the last chances for their cases to be heard.” 

Yet even finding a lawyer at appeal is a stretch: in 2022, Duncan Lewis, one of the country’s biggest legal aid firms, cited financial pressures as its reason for stopping taking on any new appeal work.

A new law is also complicating the process. Under the 2022 Nationality and Borders act, introduced by the Conservative government, the courts and Home Office must treat claimants as not credible if they don’t give information about their case at the earliest opportunity. Although there are some exemptions, the AAWG are seeing it negatively affect women. 

For women working with the AAWG it can take months or years for them to find the confidence to speak about what’s happened, fearful of how it might be used against them. Many don’t realise that what’s happened to them counts as rape.

Burnham called on Labour to repeal the law. “We’re in a situation where a Labour government, including many women Labour MPs, are not taking the opportunity to repeal this legislation that forces the authorities to treat women as liars unless they report rape early,” said Burnham. 

“There’s absolutely no understanding. There’s a refusal on the part of the Home Office to engage with the actual impact on women of not having a lawyer. They’re exploiting the fact that there aren’t lawyers, but they’re pretending on the surface that there isn’t an issue.”

As the government ramps deportations up, Burnham warned refusals given to those without lawyers could push women towards deportations. “It’s just going to end up with lots more unfair deportations,” she said. “It’s inevitable.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “We have completed a full review of civil legal aid and recently consulted on uplifts that would increase the spend on immigration and asylum fees by 30%.

“The department has also secured additional funding to boost the number of days the Immigration and Asylum Tribunal will be sitting in 25/26, helping to speed up the processing of asylum appeals.”

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