When I first started my role at JRS two months ago, I attended one of the immigration training sessions JRS UK offers for volunteers. The session outlined immigration law in the UK, the intricacies involved in applying for asylum, and the role frontline services play in helping individuals who are seeking sanctuary in the UK.
The complexity and the cruelty of the UK asylum system, when coupled with a lack of good quality legal advice, can leave individuals seeking asylum caught in a perpetual legal limbo. It is disheartening to know asylum seekers are often teetering between destitution and detention simply because they cannot access good quality specialist immigration advice and legal representation.
Learning all this has highlighted to me the value and importance of our in-house Legal Project. I appreciate the services JRS UK provides to a vastly under-resourced sector. The specialist legal advice and representation provided by the Legal Project is highly commendable, and I am always personally very touched by the care and consideration the Legal Project’s team shows to each refugee friend who registers with us. The Legal Project helps rebuild lives and brings together communities.
As part of my work at JRS UK, I am organising our participation in this year’s London Legal Walk to raise funds for the Legal Project. For 19 years, the London Legal Walk has brought together the legal community to support and fundraise to provide free frontline legal advice services. The asylum system has been hit hard by cuts to legal aid in the last few years, and, as the cost-of-living rises, the need is greater than ever.
This is why I’d like to invite you, our JRS supporters, to either walk with us on the day, meet us at the finish line, or to donate to our enthuse page and help us reach our goal of £2500.
Want to take part on Tuesday 13th June?
| Want to donate? | Want to take Part? | Want to learn more? |
| Visit our fundraising page | E-mail jemima.tanner@jrs.net and I’ll add you to our team! | Visit our London Legal Walk page for more information |
The Legal Project
Without secure immigration status, the refugees we support are destitute: they are unable to work, access government financial support, rent or open a bank account.
JRS UK has been providing free, high quality legal advice and representation to refugee friends since 2019 and, in this time, has ensured 21 refugee friends have been granted leave to remain status in the UK. Many of the refugee friends we work with have no other representation.
We know that being granted secure immigration status can be a long and difficult journey for our refugee friends. That is why the legal project also focuses on empowering refugee friends on that journey by improving their understanding of their legal rights. We run expert legal rights workshops for refugee friends on immigration enforcement powers, the asylum process and how legal aid and legal representation should work in practice.
Want to take part?
We would like to invite you to donate and/or walk alongside us in the London Legal Walk in June. Our route will take us past scenic sites such as Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, and St James Park.
If you’re unable to join us, please do encourage us from the side-lines, especially if we’re walking past your door! You are also very welcome to join us at the finish line on Carey Street, where we’ll be celebrating at a street party complete with fire jugglers, food vendors and musicians.
Your support will go towards ensuring refugee friends have access to the legal representation they need to be recognized as a refugee here in the UK and find a route out of the destitution they face. Thank you for your continued generosity and support.
Meet our team: Jemima Tanner, Megan Knowles, Eileen Cole, Michael Tarnoky, Mark Dunn, Sophie Cartwright, Victoria Firth, Danning He, William Neal, Jasmine Husseini, Lilian Djoukouo, Amy-Leigh Hatton, Gordon Parker, Kevin Alexander and Liz Clarke.
Read others’ past experiences
The London Legal walk brings together legal firms, barristers chambers and organizations like JRS to walk 10km across London to raise much needed funds for not-for-profit and legal aid providers. 10km didn’t sound like too much at first, but by about a 1/3 of the way through, I was feeling the aches in my legs begin! – Reham, Former JRS Digital Communications Officer
The legal team at JRS provides essential legal advice and representation for refuge friends who are trapped in legal limbo and forever waiting to be recognized as refugees in need of international protection. The demands on their services are ever greater so this fundraising walk is crucial in supporting our legal team. – Benjamin Cornwell, Former JRS Grants Officer
The route through London’s beautiful royal parks is very appealing and fortunately the weather was warm and sunny on the day, allowing the volunteers to walk enthusiastically and have some valuable time talking along the way. We saw several fellow organizations joining the walk, happy to see people of the same cause walking for justice – William Neal JRS Detention and Legal Caseworker
