Law Council concerned by removal of IAAAS Funding

The Law Council of Australia regrets the Australian Government’s decision to cease funding the Immigration Application Advice and Assistance Scheme (IAAAS).

Law Council of Australia President, Mr Michael Colbran QC, said the IAAAS funds professional migration advice and application assistance to eligible immigration clients, including people seeking protection in Australia.

The existing IAAAS model provides modest funding to Australian lawyers and migration agents to provide limited assistance to asylum seekers so they can properly prepare their claims for refugee status or other forms of protection.

“The Law Council considers that the provision of advice and assistance by registered legal practitioners and migration agents is critical to an effective and efficient system of processing protection claims.

“The IAAAS assistance helps ensure that asylum seekers understand the relevant legal process that applies to their claim and ensures that people are able to present these claims in the appropriate form.

“The IAAAS does not extend to providing legal advice about challenging negative decisions in the courts but is important in enabling protection claims to be considered by qualified persons with the result that unsubstantiated protection claims are abandoned at an early stage and unsuccessful applicants are returned swiftly,” Mr Colbran said.

“Without this funding assistance, many vulnerable people will be left to navigate a legally complex system on their own,” Mr Colbran said.

The Law Council is also concerned that the Government’s decision to cease funding to the IAAAS will place an unreasonable and unjustified burden on the Australian legal profession to provide pro bono assistance for the tens of thousands of asylum seekers who will otherwise be without help to make one of the most significant legal applications in their lives.

“While the legal profession has always demonstrated great generosity in providing advice to those most in need on a pro bono basis, it cannot be expected to underwrite the threatened failure of the Australian Government to meet this most basic need for assistance.

“While removing legal assistance from this group of clients may at first sound like a cost saving measure, the reality is that without legal assistance, the burden on the community will be increased in many ways, people’s claims will be unfairly rejected and their cases could end up in the courts at significantly greater cost in the long run.

“The consequences for further delays in processing claims are obvious – as is the increased social and economic cost of further prolonged detention.

“The Law Council calls upon the Australian Government to reconsider its position and maintain IAAAS funding,” Mr Colbran concluded.

Vanessa Kleinschmidt, Director, Government and Corporate Affairs P. 02 6246 3716 // M. 0408 014 110 E. vanessa.kleinschmidt@lawcouncil.asn.au // www.lawcouncil.asn.au