New report reveals systematic failure to provide legal advice for people in immigration detention

A new report published today by the Jesuit Refugee Service UK (JRS UK) exposes a deeply broken system that is failing to provide detained people with the legal advice they urgently need to navigate the UK's complex immigration and asylum processes.

Accessing legal advice in detention: becoming an impossibility draws on survey data and casework analysis from Heathrow Immigration Removal Centre (IRC), and interviews with people recently released from Heathrow IRC. It gives a window into widespread barriers to justice and legal advisors so overstretched that they cannot take on cases, following the systematic reduction of legal aid over the last two decades.

Findings include:

- Severe dysfunction in the Detained Duty Advice Scheme (DDAS), with many detained people never receiving the initial consultation to which they're legally entitled.
- Legal advisors frequently lacking the capacity to take on cases, with many detained people who have strong legal cases being refused representation.
- Systemic problems with the Detained Asylum Casework (DAC) system, where automatic legal representation sometimes fails to materialise.
- Remote provision of legal advice, leaving vulnerable people confused and vulnerabilities going unnoticed.
- Legal advisors declining to take on cases that require Exceptional Case Funding.
- Poor quality and incomplete legal representation, with many advisors only handling bail applications and neglecting substantive asylum or immigration claims.

David Ryall, Director of JRS UK, said: "This report confirms what JRS UK encounters time and again: people in immigration detention are being denied access to justice. Without legal advice, people face separation from their families and return to countries where they are at risk of persecution or even death. This is a profound moral failure. It is the result of deep-rooted systemic issues with the functioning of legal aid for asylum and immigration cases, combined with structural problems in immigration detention itself. Urgent action is needed."

The report also highlights the profound mental health impacts of prolonged detention without legal support, echoing calls from the British Medical Association and other bodies for urgent reform.

Recommendations from JRS UK include:

1. Automatic legal appointments for all detained individuals, with clear communication and interpreter access.
2. Review of DDAS providers and rota by the Legal Aid Agency to ensure quality and increase capacity.
3. Full inclusion of immigration cases in legal aid scope, removing barriers to legal advisors taking on immigration cases.
4. In-person legal support in detention centres, with providers contracted and funded accordingly.
5. Urgent steps to address the critical non-availability of asylum and immigration legal aid.

JRS UK calls on the Government to act immediately and restore access to justice for those in immigration detention, as well as reconsidering the use of detention as a tool of immigration control.

Download the full report here: www.jrsuk.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Accessing-legal-advice-in-detention-July-2025.pdf

The Jesuit Refugee Service UK www.jrsuk.net/ is the refugee agency of the Jesuits in Britain and part of a global Catholic organisation supporting and advocating for the rights of refugees and other forcibly displaced people.