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HUMANITY OVER POLITICS 17
This year, despite the ministerial
discretion changing prioritization of
processing for family reunion visas,
RACS has several clients who were
successful in their applications for
family reunification.
INITIATIVES OF
RACS
There has never been a more
challenging time for people seeking
asylum in Australia where the
increasingly punitive policies are
coupled with significant cuts to
government funded legal assistance.
Despite the many challenges
RACS has had to face due to these
changes (discussed below), we have
developed in our view new and
innovative responses to them.
The Legal Help for Refugees
Clinic
This is an initiative of RACS, which
aims to provide free immigration
legal assistance and advice to
asylum seekers who arrived by
boat after 13 August 2012. Federal
government policy means these
people are currently barred
from applying for a protection
visa and are not eligible for an
IAAAS (Immigration Application
and Assistance Scheme) funded
migration agent.
There are at least 23,000 (7000
in NSW) unrepresented asylum
seekers who have not received free
IAAAS assistance with their claims
for protection. All they have to
assist them are info kits prepared by
the Department of Immigration. As
UNHCR has noted, ‘[a]sylum seekers
are often unable to articulate the
elements relevant to an asylum
claim without the assistance of a
qualified counselor because they
are not familiar with the precise
grounds for the recognition of
refugee status and the legal system
of a foreign country’. RACS’ clinic
aims to provide asylum seekers with
knowledge of their legal status, as
well as their entry interview and a
statement of claims prepared by a
lawyer.
RACS has partnered with Red Cross
and SSI to provide information
sessions to their clients, at which
FOI forms were signed to obtain
from the Department the clients’
entry interviews. These information
sessions were then followed by
the face-to-face sessions that
involved over 100 volunteers. These
volunteers include law students,
interpreters and lawyers. Training
and a handbook of guidelines
were developed for volunteers.
Experienced RACS’ volunteers
trained and supervised new student
volunteers. Legal volunteers were
trained and supervised by the
Principal Solicitor. The clinic runs for
3 hours - one hour with a student
taking personal details and then 2
hours with a lawyer.
These sessions allow clients, many
of whom have been here for over
2 years, to talk to someone in
detail for the first time about their
reasons for fleeing their country
and have a detailed statement of
claims compiled. Clients leave the
office with these documents, which
will assist them with their visa
applications, if they are ever allowed
to claim protection.
This clinic is unique to NSW. It offers
unrepresented asylum seekers the
opportunity to access expert, free
legal assistance. Without this clinic,
this group of asylum seekers would
have no legal help at all. RACS has
lost 2/3 of our funding and yet has
managed to develop an innovative
project that makes a significant
difference to people’s lives.
Asylum seekers are some of the
most vulnerable people in Australia
at the moment. Particularly as many
of them are unable to work and
have no prospects of having their
claims for protection finalised in
the near future. They are a group
of traumatised, disenfranchised,
impecunious people with little
hope of things improving in the
short term. The newspapers are
full of anti-asylum seeker news, the
caseworkers that provide welfare
support are contractually obliged to
report on them to the Department.
Fear of authority is often what led
asylum seekers to flee their country
of origin.
RACS’ legal clinic provides the
clients with an opportunity
to receive expert assistance
(from someone they can trust)
in documenting their claims,
assistance they would not
otherwise receive thanks to Federal
government funding cuts.