Fast-track asylum pilot on the rocks, say lawyers

London immigration firms that signed up to a duty solicitor pilot for fast-tracking asylum cases at the high-profile Harmondsworth removal centre have warned that the scheme is in trouble because the government is imposing unreasonable time limits on the way they carry out their work.

The Legal Services Commission approached 35 top firms earlier this year after the Home Office asked it to set up the pilot at Harmondsworth, near Heathrow Airport, in a bid to deal with unfounded applications within a month (see [2003] Gazette, 27 March, 5).

Sajid Sheikh, partner in north London firm Sheikh & Co, said he is now considering calling a meeting of all the firms involved, with a view to them making a collective decision to pull out.

'Every time we ask [the Home Office] to take the case out of the fast-track for reasons such as a medical report, evidence of torture or the applicant's age, they say they will consider it but clearly don't,' he said.

Ivy Samuel, sole practitioner in Samuel & Co, said she was forced to undertake 'rush jobs', to the detriment of the clients.

'They give us no time at all to take instructions from the client, give them the facts relevant to their case or advise them, then make representations,' she complained.

Nina Joshi, director at Duncan Lewis, said it was also hard to get counsel's opinions and documents translated within the time restrictions.

Chris Randall, executive member of the Immigration Law Practitioners Association said: 'We have concerns about whether solicitors can properly prepare an asylum case when they are only given the morning before the interview to do the research and find the experts.'

Nobody from the Home Office was available for comment.

Meanwhile, the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) has urged the Law Society to clamp down on firms that shelter unqualified advisers from regulation, as well as the 'growing problem' of solicitors touting for trade by bribing asylum seekers.

Law Society chief executive Janet Paraskeva said: 'We are keen to work with OISC and other interested bodies - such as the Legal Services Commission - to stamp out the practice [of touting].'

By Paula Rohan