Immigration lawyers use one word to sum up the government's regime for dispersing asylum seekers around the country -- chaotic.A rapid internal review of the dispersal system was ordered by Home Secretary David Blunkett after the fatal stabbing of Kurdish refugee Firsat Yildiz in Glasgow.However, the Home Office has made it clear the review is not into the principle of dispersal but how to make it work better.

More than 32,000 asylum seekers have so far been dispersed, with most -- according to Home Office figures to the end of July -- going to the north-west (6,960), Yorkshire and Humberside (6,870), the Midlands (6,740), the north-east (4,850) and Scotland (4,330).The regulations apply to any destitute or homeless asylum seekers who can only refuse to go on limited grounds, such as needing to be near close relatives or essential medical support in London.

Since April 2000, support for those dispersed has been provided by the National Asylum Support Service (NASS).Sue Willman, a solicitor with the Hammersmith and Fulham Law Centre, is co-author of a new Legal Action Group guide to asylum seekers' rights.

Asked about problems thrown up by dispersal, she says despairingly: 'I don't know where to start.'I have one case I am dealing with at the moment involving an Iranian client with two school-age children who has been in the UK since last October.

Her five year-old daughter died while her husband, who is now in military detention, was being arrested.

He was holding her at the time and she fell to the floor banging her head.

My client doesn't even know where she is buried.'She came to London to be with her brother and family.

She is very traumatised and is receiving intensive psychiatric support.

NASS want to disperse her and her two children to Glasgow, despite reports from doctors and psychiatrists that she would be likely to suffer a breakdown.

We have issued judicial review proceedings, due to be heard later this month, and the move has been postponed until then.'The law centre has four immigration workers with caseloads of up to 200 -- some straightforward, some extremely complex.

'People may arrive in London and come to us, then be dispersed to somewhere where it is difficult to get access to an interpreter, with no funding to travel back here to see us and no local solicitors able to help.'If the government wants to continue with dispersal, it will need a massive investment in infrastructure to ensure it works properly.

People shouldn't be dispersed to sink estates with high levels of deprivation but should be given more flexibility to stay in London where they can get support from relatives and their own communities -- in the long run it would be cheaper because those involved won't suffer long-term health and social problems that come with dispersal.

It may also be the government will be forced to reconsider dispersal to avoid serious race relations and public order problems.'The best way of resolving the problems is for claims to be processed more quickly.

The Home Office takes so long to make decisions, people's situations change.

Some have married and some have children born here, which throw up all sorts of human rights issues about respect for family life.'In July last year, the Legal Services Commission (LSC) launched a package of incentives to encourage the expansion of law firms offering immigration advice, including a guaranteed payment of £45,000 per caseworker per year for three years.

Since then, the LSC has awarded 47 expansion contracts in the regions -- including 13 in the north-east, 12 in the East Midlands and 12 in Yorkshire and Humberside -- involving a total of 85 caseworkers.

London has recently been awarded 16 expansion contracts involving 82 caseworkers.The LSC is also funding a training project, run by the Immigration Law Practitioners Association (ILPA) for asylum caseworkers.Jane Aspden runs the project for ILPA.

The first courses were in Newcastle, Liverpool and Leeds, with the next batch in Manchester, Cardiff and Birmingham.

Additional courses will be run in Leicester and Oxford.Ms Aspden explains: 'We have 15 on each eight-day course.

If the person is from one of the LSC's contracted suppliers and attends all eight days, they receive an attendance certificate and the LSC meets the £400 cost.

Those attending from non-contracted suppliers would pay £600.

However, we are so oversubscribed that we have only been able to take staff from contracted suppliers.'David Gray, partner of Newcastle solicitors David Gray & Co, supervises the firm's immigration department.

'One of the problems from the start has been the totally inadequate resources on the ground.

There has been some improvement in the number of firms able to give advice -- instead of just us two years ago, there are now a dozen of so firms notionally doing asylum work.

However, it is inevitable some will be pretty inexperienced and reliant on external supervision.'He welcomes the expansion programme.

'But there are only a limited number of lawyers and caseworkers to go round so it has meant we have lost quite a few of our staff to new firms.

There is also a shortage of experienced counsel.

In Newcastle, we have a set of chambers who came and shadowed us for a few months but it will be some time before they are up and running.'Another difficulty is that the Home Office has speeded up immigration procedures.

We are facing unrealistic time schedules for getting asylum applications in -- just 14 days.

Initially, we were able to cope with the volume of cases we took on -- about 1,700.

But over the past nine months, we haven't been able to take on any new clients.'My own feeling is there are enormous political problems down south and since there is accommodation available in the regions there is a certain logic to the dispersal programme.

I would like to be more optimistic -- given time, more experienced caseworkers will be able to manage the volume of work more effectively.

But at the moment, dispersing more people to the north-east and expecting they will get decent legal services is thoroughly unrealistic.'Andrew Holroyd, a Law Society Council member and a member of the Society's immigration law committee, is a partner in the Liverpool law firm Jackson & Canter.

Before the dispersal scheme started, the firm was dealing with about 50 asylum cases a year.

Now it handles between 400 and 500 cases.

It also acts as an agent for law firms whose clients have to travel to Liverpool to to be interviewed by the immigration authorities.'The scheme has put an awful lot of pressure on firms in the regions,' he says.

'We have increased our capacity probably four-fold over a very short time, which does lead to tensions and difficulties because, while we have recruited good staff, they are not necessarily experienced in this field and there is an awful lot of training and time spent supervising.'Overall, I think the dispersal system is good for Liverpool -- an influx of new blood is no bad thing.

However, there are a lo t of problems with accommodation and the voucher system, and the Home Office must ensure NASS has a local presence in the regions so it can check things are being done properly.'Tony Gomez is a senior immigration adviser with Tanfields in Dudley, West Midlands, one of a team of three specialist advisers and one solicitor dealing with 800 cases.

He finds the main problems are caused by the Home Office deadlines, with many refusals put down to 'non-compliance', inevitably leading to large numbers of appeals.

The situation is exacerbated by clients being dispersed and then re-dispersed.'One client, who speaks no English, came to me with two days to submit his 20-page statement of evidence form from scratch.

Generally, we don't book an interpreter when someone comes to us for initial advice in case the client doesn't turn up and then we have to pay the interpreter out of our office budget.

Luckily, we already had an interpreter here so we got his form done.'The question is -- is the Home Office sticking to its policies because it wants to be seen to be tough or is it because it hasn't got any answers?'