Legal aid bill for failed asylum seekers soars – and guess who’s paying
TAXPAYERS were hit with a bill for nearly £8 million last year to fund legal aid for asylum seekers fighting to remain in Scotland.
Legal aid is available to migrants who are appealing against decisions denying them asylum in the UK, and a record number were funded in Scotland last year.
More than 10,000 cases of legal aid payments for immigration and asylum cost the taxpayer £7.8 million in 2017-18 – a £1.3 million increase on the previous year.
The legal aid bill for asylum cases has been rising steeply for years, with an overall cost of £6.5 million in 2016 and £5.3 million in 2015, compared with the 2001-02 bill of £855,000. The figures are revealed in the annual report of the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB). It states: ‘The increase in immigration and asylum costs stems from an increase in the volume of applications in this area as well as an increase in average case costs.’
According to the board’s figures, the total number of grants for legal advice and representation and asylum cases rose from 9,530 to 10,146 between 2016-17 and 2017-18. This is up from only 95 in 2004 – more than a 100-fold increase.
When a migrant is granted asylum in the UK, there is usually no cost to the legal aid board. But if asylum is refused, the applicant can seek legal aid to challenge the decision in the asylum and immigration tribunal. Further challenges can also be made in the Court of Session.
The system has come under fire after a number of controversial cases where even serious criminals have been given legal aid.
Last year we reported that a foreign criminal who shot a man in the face was still living freely in Scotland – despite being ordered out of the country for public safety. Aleksandrs Kolosovs was jailed for a ‘calculated and cowardly’ attack that left his victim needing surgery to remove airgun pellets from his skull.
Upon release from prison, Kolosovs was ordered to be deported to his native Latvia but was granted taxpayers’ cash to fund a string of failed appeals to stay in the country.
In a separate case, Chinese national Yehao Yan – an illegal immigrant jailed in 2008 for drug offences, money laundering and fraud – was granted £22,000 in legal aid to help him avoid deportation.
The 35-year-old was freed in 2012 and used human rights legislation to try to dodge deportation. In May last year he was jailed again after police found him running a drugs distribution network from a flat in Glasgow.
Yesterday, Gary Christie of the Scottish Refugee Council campaign group said: ‘Legal aid is an essential public service including for those seeking refugee protection in the UK. We note the numbers in this report refer to immigration and asylum cases, so it is difficult to fully assess all the specific reasons behind this small increase. If the Home Office simplifies the UK’s complex immigration rules, this would go a long way to reducing costs.’
Commenting on the rise in asylum and immigration legal aid, a SLAB spokesman said: ‘Legal aid expenditure in this area is prone to fluctuation, which can be due to UK government policy and world events. The complexity of individual cases can also affect the amount of work solicitors are paid to do when representing clients.
‘We keep the provision of legal aid in this area, as in others, under review and focus on achieving best value for the public funds available.’
‘An essential public service’