Refugee and Migrant Justice enters administration

Asylum charity Refugee and Migrant Justice (RMJ) has gone into administration, blaming late payment of legal aid by the Legal Services Commission.

The charity provides legal representation for more than 10,000 vulnerable asylum seekers and victims of trafficking, including nearly 900 separated children.

In an open letter to Justice Secretary Ken Clarke and Home Secretary Teresa May, Paul Gray, chair of RMJ, said: “It is with great sadness that RMJ’s trustees took the decision to put RMJ into administration.

“It is a brilliant charity which has a justifiably high reputation for the quality of support it gives and we are very concerned about the position of our 10,000 clients, and of our dedicated and highly professional staff.

“This situation is caused by late payment of legal aid by up to two years, not inefficiency or even lack of income.”

Gray said that RMJ staff have performed a “minor miracle in cutting costs to live with a fall in income per client of over 40 per cent”.

He added: “Late payment has an unequal impact on charities because they cannot get bank loans to finance the cash gap.

“In the absence of any last-minute intervention by the government, the priority now is to ensure maximum protection of our clients, who include many of the most vulnerable people in our country.

“We urge the Legal Services Commission immediately to discuss with the administrators how best to minimise the distress and disruption to our clients during what will inevitably be a difficult transition process.”

An MoJ spokesperson said: “It is important asylum seekers have fair access to legal advice. We fully appreciate the value that organisations like Refugee and Migrant Justice bring in providing this service to particularly vulnerable clients. We have worked closely with Refugee and Migrant Justice for the past few years for precisely this reason, and as a result they have received substantial support to help them transfer to the current payment system.

“However, it is also crucial that the government achieves value for public money. The fixed fee system introduced three years ago is already being successfully used by the vast majority of not-for-profit organisations in this area of law. As other organisations have successfully made this transition, it is only reasonable to expect Refugee and Migrant Justice to do the same.

“We are confident there is widespread provision of legal advice in this area, with more than 250 offices nationally providing this type of service. Providers are also currently bidding to handle more than double the number of cases currently available.”

Administrators BDO will assume responsibility for managing the business.