RMJ goes into administration

The decision to go into administration follows a public campaign in which leading figures, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty and Ken Loach, the film director, called on the Government to save the charity. Major charities, such as Amnesty International, MIND and Barnardo’s, also joined the campaign and wrote to Ministers on RMJ’s behalf. In an open letter to the Justice and Home Secretaries they warned: “it would be a tragedy if RMJ were allowed to go under.”

Paul Gray, Chair of RMJ said:

“It is with great sadness that RMJ’s trustees took the decision to put RMJ into administration. It is a brilliant charity which has a justifiably high reputation for the quality of support it gives and we are very concerned about the position of our 10,000 clients, and of our dedicated and highly professional staff.”

“This situation is caused by late payment of legal aid by up to two years, not inefficiency or even lack of income: RMJ staff have performed a minor miracle in cutting costs to live with a fall in income per client of over 40%. Late payment has an unequal impact on charities because they cannot get bank loans to finance the cash gap.

In the absence of any last minute intervention by the Government the priority now is to ensure maximum protection of our clients, who include many of the most vulnerable people in our country. We urge the Legal Services Commission immediately to discuss with the administrators how best to minimise the distress and disruption to our clients during what will inevitably be a difficult transition process.”

The Government has committed to review the legal aid system, but has declined to change the payment system at this point. A recent Freedom of Information request submitted to the Legal Services Commission has revealed around 29% of asylum providers, doing the minimum possible to advance their clients’ cases, are making massive profits. While this has gone unchecked, quality representatives such as RMJ who spend time with their clients to complete cases are being starved of cash. Those quality providers who see the job through have to wait for an asylum decision that can take years before they are paid.
Major concerns have been raised by refugee experts about the effect of RMJ having to close. Roland Schilling, the United Nations Refugee Agency’s UK representative said:

“The UN Refugee Agency has raised its deep concern to the Government if legal aid to the persons in need of protection is not anymore provided by specialised and highly professional organisations like RMJ. A discontinuation of these services would severely damage the effectiveness and fairness of the asylum system in the country.”