Annual Report 2014-15

Legal Help for Refugees Clinic
In response to funding cuts, RACS decided to establish
a Legal Help for Refugees Clinic to help people in the
Fast Track Process who will never receive free legal
assistance. The Legal Help for Refugees clinic has been
the glue binding the services that come under the Fast
Track Process Legal Assistance Project.
Initially coordinated by existing RACS lawyers with
volunteer lawyers providing legal support, the prospect
of assisting the 9000 asylum seekers, who live in NSW,
with no extra resources was daunting if not impossible.
Therefore, RACS approached Legal Aid regarding the
possibility of funding to support this work. We are
very grateful that, in April 2015, we received a one off
Legal Aid grant of $80,000, which allowed us to hire a
migration agent lawyer and a legal admin staff member
for seven months.
The clinic provides great value for money and is
incredibly efficient.
Employing two people to co-ordinate the 80 lawyers, and
63 interpreters who “work” in the clinic means that we
can leverage volunteers in an effective, strategic way to
provide much needed assistance to large numbers of
people needing essential legal support. About $350,000
worth in volunteer hours.
Coordinated by RACS and supervised by RACS’ lawyers ,
in the past 18 months, volunteer lawyers and interpreters
have helped over 570 people to draft statements setting
out their refugee claims with the assistance of legally
trained volunteers. RACS’ Fast Track Process Legal
Assistance project receives on average between 30-35
new referrals for assistance per week, assists between
20-25 asylum seekers write statements per week and
provides additional advice to asylum seekers who need
to lodge applications urgently. RACS has also assisted
clients in detention centres throughout Australia without
access to other legal and migration advice and has
helped train community groups to assist refugees
applying for protection in Australia.
The project is an innovative response to a crisis in the
provision of legal services for people seeking protection.
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection
has only recently commenced processing of the fast
track applications but the demand for legal services is
growing exponentially as people realise how challenging
the Fast Track process is.
22 | Annual Report