A group of voluntary organisations has secured more than £230,000 in lottery funding to launch a charity providing legal advice to asylum seekers.

The Asylum Support Appeals Project (ASAP) will assist asylum seekers who have been granted the right to stay in the UK, but who have had housing and welfare support from the National Asylum Support Service (NASS) withdrawn.


The charity will recruit two qualified lawyers to act as full-time caseworkers, representing clients at asylum support appeals and providing advice on housing and welfare issues.


The funding was granted by the Big Lottery Fund following four years of lobbying by ASAP founders the Law Centres Federation (LCF), Hammersmith and Fulham Community Law Centre, the Refugee Council, Asylum Aid and other groups.


Noeleen Adams, LCF London manager, said the City Parochial Foundation was currently considering making a £30,000 donation to the fund, with another private charity lined up to fund a 'language line' for the service.


She added: 'We will be providing legal help in a very specialised area, and there are very few people currently doing it. This kind of support should be paid for by legal aid, but it is not available for tribunal work.


'We have already been running a pro bono scheme for six months where barristers phone up and offer to provide free representation.'


ASAP claims that 80% of asylum seekers who challenge NASS funding decisions currently do so without legal representation. Ms Adams added: 'These asylum seekers are not allowed to work, and if their appeal is dismissed, they are left with no income and are immediately evicted from their accommodation.'