Legal aid is crucial for survivors of modern slavery to access safety, rights and justice. That is why Hope for Justice has joined 14 other anti-trafficking organisations to send a strong message in joint evidence to a Ministry of Justice consultation on civil legal aid.
We urge the UK Government to ensure that survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking can access quality and timely legally aided advice and representation.
Hope for Justice welcomes the Ministry of Justice’s announcement of the first increase in civil legal aid fees in 30 years. We also welcome its recognition of the need to help survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking to access legal advice, to navigate the complex legal system and to access justice.
“The ongoing legal advice crisis is leaving survivors without access to specialist advice and representation. There are lengthy delays to finding solicitors with the capacity to take on new cases and many survivors cannot find one at all. In Hope for Justice’s experience, survivors have been left waiting for a solicitor for months, or even years. Being unable to access a solicitor can make it extremely difficult for survivors to realise their rights, whether that be secure immigration status, compensation or safe accommodation.”
Euan Fraser, Hope for Justice’s Senior Policy and Research Advisor
Legal aid exists to help those who cannot afford to pay for legal costs to access legal advice and representation in a court or tribunal. For survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking, the legal aid crisis is more acute because legal advice for survivors requires highly specific expertise. Survivors can often have multiple connected legal needs, which might include representation on criminal law, civil compensation, criminal injuries compensation, welfare benefits, housing, immigration and community care. Legal advice and representation are key for survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking to be formally recognised as victims, to secure immigration status, uphold their rights, aid in their recovery and reduce the risk of being exploited again.
The joint submission, co-ordinated by the Anti-Trafficking & Labour Exploitation Unit (ATLEU), states: “The legal advice crisis is having devastating consequences for survivors, including homelessness, destitution, and mental health problems including suicidal thoughts. Unrepresented survivors are far more likely to experience poor outcomes in their cases including negative decisions on National Referral Mechanism (NRM) identification, and disqualification from NRM support. They risk detention, criminalisation, and being re-trafficked.”
This report by ATLEU, which Hope for Justice contributed to, also highlights the negative impacts of the lack of access to legal aid for many survivors of trafficking and modern day slavery.
We support the Ministry of Justice’s principle for setting fee levels within civil legal aid. We state that this is important in ensuring that quality legal aid is provided for survivors. It is not currently financially viable for legal aid providers to take on trafficking and modern slavery cases. These types of cases are complex, lengthy and costly, which is not reflected in the current funding method of a standard legal aid fixed fee. We also support the proposals to raise legal aid fees for housing and immigration work. However, we would go further in calling for more significant fee increases to “save a collapsing legal aid sector”.
Research consistently shows that access to early legal advice would save significant costs for the public purse such as in housing, health and social care. This is because it often prevents issues from escalating into more complex and severe problems which need to be resolved in courts and tribunals. Our joint submission makes a number of key recommendations, including:
- An appropriate funding model for trafficking and modern slavery cases. We recommend that immigration legal aid for human trafficking and modern slavery cases are paid on an hourly basis with rates of remuneration raised to a sustainable level.
- An efficient and streamlined administrative system for opening, reporting and billing legal aid matters, with frequent and regular payments to providers
- Non means tested legal aid for survivors of human trafficking and modern slavery
- The following areas of law into scope of legal aid for all survivors: pre-NRM immigration advice; advice on identification as a victim of trafficking and modern slavery; and advice on the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme.
