Lawyers who “coach” people to lie in their asylum applications will be targeted as part of a new government-led panel tasked with pursuing more prosecutions.
The move is designed to demonstrate Rishi Sunak’s commitment to “stop the boats”, but it was criticised by legal experts who said the record asylum backlog was the fault of the Home Office.
The so-called professional enablers taskforce has already been up and running for several months, but will be officially launched on Tuesday by the home secretary, Suella Braverman.
Ministers are keen to capitalise on the spotlight being shone on some immigration law firms after the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) launched an investigation into claims of inappropriate conduct.
Claims from the Daily Mail said that several individuals working with law firms had been charging thousands of pounds to submit false asylum and human rights claims. An undercover reporter from the paper said they had been offered help in obtaining refugee status in the UK, despite having made it clear to the several advisers they had no legitimate right to stay.
Sunak and other senior ministers weighed in afterwards to argue that an “unscrupulous practice” had been “brought to light”.
Announcing the new taskforce to track down similar cases, the Home Office said that the “vast majority of lawyers act with professionalism and integrity”. But it cited recent media reports as evidence that a “small minority have been helping illegal migrants stay in the UK by encouraging them to make false claims”.
A new training package for frontline staff who work in the immigration system has already been developed by the taskforce to help them spot and report suspect activity.
Its next main goal will be to build evidence and improve intelligence sharing, to pass on to industry bodies like the SRA to investigate, and pursue prosecutions if necessary.
Braverman said: “Crooked immigration lawyers must be rooted out and brought to justice. While the majority of lawyers act with integrity – we know that some are lying to help illegal migrants game the system. It is not right or fair on those who play by the rules.”
Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, also said those who undermine the integrity of the UK’s legal system “must be held to account”. However, concerns were raised about the effectiveness of such a taskforce.
Richard Atkinson, the vice-president of the Law Society of England and Wales, said that the government and law enforcement “already have the powers they need to deal with immigration advisers engaged in misconduct”.
He added: “The focus of the Home Office on a tiny minority of lawyers to which they are apparently applying considerable resources should not deflect from the fact that there remains significant backlogs in asylum claims or the unworkability of the Illegal Migration Act.”
Colin Yeo, an immigration barrister, said the asylum backlog, which stands at a record 92,000, had “nothing to do with lawyers”. He said: “There’s no doubt a handful of immigration lawyers who misbehave. But there’s no evidence this is a major issue among other immigration lawyers, or that lawyers generally are holding things up or causing problems at the Home Office.
“The government’s got limited resources – not just financial, but its attention span and energy. And they’re frittering that way on these weird political obsessions, rather than focusing on what really matters, which is making more decisions, driving down the backlog and bringing down hotel costs.”
Robert Buckland, a Conservative MP and former justice secretary said, said he could see the merits of the taskforce so long as it had strong ministerial leadership. However, he called for more introspection from the Home Office about how its caseworkers handled immigration law cases.
Buckland said: “There is also a lot to be said for sharpening up the work of the Home Office legal teams. There are too many examples of the Home Office not being ready in [court] cases – and that’s having a knock-on effect because it leads to adjournments.”
