Save Refugee and Migrant Justice
Refugee and Migrant Justice (RMJ) is a charity that provides free legal advice and representation to asylum seekers. The organisation is facing possible closure as a result of a new system of payment of legal aid whereby payments are only made when stages are closed. In RMJ’s case this is on average six months after work is started and can take up to two years.
They are not asking for more money, just prompt payment of what they are due. The possible closure of RMJ will effect 10,000 asylum seekers in the UK who will be left without legal representation, and may be forced to return to persecution, torture, and the threat of death. Nine hundred of their clients are children.
They have been in private touch with the new ministers but, despite some sympathy in the Home Office from Damian Green, they have just received a negative response from a junior Ministry of Justice minister. So they are launching a public campaign.
RMJ has managed to get a letter of support out today, signed by various public figures, and hope that this will put some pressure on the government. However, that alone is not enough, and RMJ are asking for support. They are encouraging people to write to the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor Kenneth Clarke in protest at the closure. They also want to raise awareness of the situation as widely as possible, in as many different sectors as they can.
(Here’s a sample letter to Kenneth Clarke and a leaflet outline RMJ’s situation.)
Posted on June 2nd, 2010 at 4:04pm under Activism, Human rights, Tories
