Legal aid funding system is failing survivors of trafficking and modern slavery says anti trafficking coalition
Access to legal advice is crucial for survivors of trafficking and modern slavery but the legal aid funding system is failing them. ATLEU’s survey to frontline support and advocacy organisations found a stark and alarming gulf in the availability of legally aided advice for survivors, leading to destitution, trauma, and exposure to further exploitation. In a joint response to a government consultation on immigration legal aid funding, 10 anti-trafficking organisations* call for action to address the causes of this legal advice crisis - the legal aid funding system.
Legal advice: Crucial, yet unavailable
Survivors of trafficking and modern slavery have complex legal and support needs. Access to early, specialist legal advice representation is absolutely critical for survivors to secure safety, rights, support, justice and recovery.
Yet, the response by frontline organisations to ATLEU’s survey revealed an enormous 90% of respondents had struggled to find a legal aid immigration lawyer in the past year. 76% reported significant delays of up to three months or longer, with 43% reporting delays of six months or longer.
Some areas of the country are particularly badly affected, with survivors forced to travel long distances in order to access legal advice. Yet even in areas considered better-served by legal aid providers, capacity is extremely strained, with demand far outstripping availability.
This damages survivors’ ability to recover and rebuild their lives and undermines government measures to support them in this process.
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55% of respondents to ATLEU’s survey said it left survivors in destitution or unable to access appropriate accommodation or support
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97% said it caused survivors stress, anxiety or contributed to poor mental health. 64% said it resulted in the survivor being unable to meet a deadline in their case, for example with the Home Office
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57% said it left survivors in a position where they were unable to claim asylum, and others shared experiences of survivors being detained or at risk of removal
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29% of respondents said it had left survivors in a situation of exploitation.
Significant capacity within the anti-trafficking support sector is spent on searching for legal representation for victims, detracting from their ability to support the core needs of survivors.
The cause: An unviable legal aid funding model
Trafficking and modern slavery cases are not financially viable for legal aid providers. This is because these cases are particularly complex and lengthy, and therefore ill-suited to payment by standard legal aid fixed fees which do not change to reflect the time or level of work carried out.
This fixed fee system results in many legal aid practitioners and firms refusing to take on trafficking cases or limiting the amount of time they spend on them. Respondents to ATLEU’s survey said that advisors often lacked knowledge or expertise on trafficking and modern slavery, itself an outcome of a funding model that deters providers from specialising in this work.
This system is not sustainable.
The immigration legal aid fees consultation
The Ministry of Justice’s recent consultation, Immigration Legal Aid: A consultation on new fees for new services, does not address these systemic problems. While we welcome its commitments to legal aid as an important part of a fair immigration system, the proposals are piecemeal, do not address the difficulties described, and risk further complicating access in some areas.
Our joint response, which addresses how the proposals would impact legal advice for trafficking and modern slavery cases, calls for broader changes to legal aid funding: to address the critical health of the immigration legal aid market now and the imminent changes brought by the Nationality and Borders Act.
Advice in trafficking and modern slavery cases must be paid on an hourly rates basis, and at a rate that is sustainable. Rates of remuneration should be urgently reviewed and increased for civil legal aid, with the introduction of a billing system that is streamlined and more user friendly.
Unless this situation is tackled urgently, survivors will continue to remain at risk, without the legal advice and support they need to escape exploitation and abuse.
*Coalition members: Anti-Slavery International, Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group (ATMG), Anti Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit (ATLEU), Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX), Helen Bamber Foundation (HBF), Hope for Justice (HfJ), International Justice Mission UK (IJM UK), Kanlungan Filipino Consortium, The Snowdrop Project, The Voice of Domestic Workers.