First Legal Aid for Asylum Lawyers

The First Legal Aid for Asylum Lawyers

From 14th October to 31st March 2015 the Human Rights League carries out a project called „The First Legal Aid for Asylum Lawyers“ supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Matters of the Slovak Republic within a  dotation program called „Support and Protection Human Rights and Freedoms LP/2014“.

The main goal of the project: education of lawyers in the area of human rights, specifically the right for asylum and its application by public authories in the Slovak Republic, increasing qualification of lawyers and strenghtening the quality of legal aid provided in asylum procedure.

Background

Foreigners applying for international protection (asylum or subsidiary protection) in the Slovak Republic have to undergo an administrative procedure, in which the Migration Office of the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic decides about their asylum application. For most of them, this is the first experience with the administrative procedure whatsoever. Their position as a party to the administrative procedure is hindered by lack of knowledge of Slovak language, of relevant legal regulation and quite often of general legal culture.

It is correct that the Slovak Republic supports provision of free-of-charge legal aid. Legal counselling and legal representation are actually one of the most important factors influencing effictivity and speed of the asylum procedure and legality, accuracy and fairness of decision making in individual asylum cases.

The asylum seekers may get assistance of a lawyer already during the asylum procedure before the Migration Office. Thanks to the financial support of the European Refugee Fund and the Ministry of Interior of Slovak Republic, legal aid is provided by NGO lawyers. At the present the financial support of their projects is guaranteed until the end of 2014 and the rules of financial support for future projects by means of the new Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund are not clear yet. Legal aid during judicial review proceeding (in case an applicant did not succeed before the Migration Office and appealed to the court) is provided free-of-charge also by the Centre of Legal Aid under the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic through its lawyers or appointed attorneys.

Description of the problem:

The amount of financial resources allocated for provision of legal aid for asylum seekers decreases each year. Thus, also the scope of legal services which can be provided to asylum seekers free-of-charge decreases. One lawyer therefore has to deal with higher number of clients, asylum seekers, in the limited time. As a consequence, the time a lawyer can dedicate to individual cases, to self-education and to increasing one´s qualification is limited.

In the court proceedings asylum seekers are represented by attorneys registered with the Slovak Bar Association. As long as they do not work with the law of international protection and asylum systematically and for a longer time, their possibilities to maintain an overview of constantly developing interpretation and application of European and national asylum law and jurisprudence of national and international courts, are significantly limited. After all, the quality and effectivity of legal aid is also largerly influenced by high fluctuation of lawyers employed in NGOs and in the Centre of Legal Aid.

Lack of time capacity, knowledge and experiences may have considerable impact on availibility, amount and quality of legal aid provided.

With reference to its annual report, in 2013 the Centre of Legal Aid has registered 85 applications for legal aid in asylum matters. In 12 of them, the centre appointed an attorney for representation in the court proceedings. The asylum agenda is mostly covered by the Centre of Legal Aid offices in Košice and Bratislava. According to the annual report, high profesionality of the Centre of Legal Aid employees must be maintained, the problem arises from extensive fluctuation of employees which  results mainly from insufficient wage conditions.

On its website, the Slovak Bar Association lists 165 attorneys professionaly specializing on provision of free-of-charge legal aid in area of asylum, refugees and foreigners law. However, also attorneys with general professional specialization may provide legal aid to asylum seekers if needed.

Currently there is approximately 15 lawyers working in NGOs – Slovak Humanitarain Council, Slovak Catholic Charity, Marginal, People of Goodwill Society, Human Rights League and the village of Rovné (also involved in project-based provision of legal aid for asylum seeker). Each year 6 to 10 students of the Faculty of Law of Trnava University in Trnava take theoretical and practical education in the scope of optional subject called the Asylum Clinic. In 2013 the Asylum Law Clinic has been renewed also at the Law Faculty of the the University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik in Košice

Except for Asylum Clinic, in Slovakia there is no other available systematic education or training in asylum law enabling development of necessary skills and knowledge. Lawyers usually build up their „know-how“ individually by themselves. There are no basic templates of legal submissions or sample documents in asylum matters availible for lawyers and attorneys, or any introductory package of information for the asylum lawyers beginners. Financial rules of European Refugee Fund and Ministry of Interior of Slovak Republic allocated fot the projects of NGOs do not enable reimbursement of expenses for education of legal counsellors and legal representatives. Asylum law courses abroad are financially inaccessible. There is a lack of expert literature in the field of asylum law in Slovakia, only  few academics are devoted to scientific research and publication in this area.

Solution:

In the near future, Human Rights League is going to analyze the accessibility and content of the legal aid provided in the asylum procedure before the Migration Office and courts (legal framework, quantification of available legal aid, qualification and experiences of lawyers, work with a client/asylum seekers, feedback from lawyers and other subjects involved in the asylum procedure, analysis of relevant legal actions, methods and means used in asylum procedure).

Based on the analysis, we would like to develop also practical tools which could be helpful in increasing the quality of legal aid and in facilitating the assistance of asylum lawyers. We will prepare an information package for lawyers beginners, which will comprise of information about the legal framework, important judicial decisions, references to key professional literature and some templates  or samples of documents and written forms of legal acts. Further instruments, such as checklist for preparation of a client for an interview/hearing, will be introduced following the findings and recommendations of the analysis.

Until the end of 2014, we will establish an online Section for Lawyers on our websites www.utecenci.sk and www.hrl.sk, where we will publish news concerning changes and amendments of legal regulation and information about decision making practice and about other professional publications in the area of asylum in in regular intervals. Lawyers´ forum which will form another part of this section on HRL website, should serve as a venue for professional discussion about particular topics, as well as an online advisory service for consultations. We will try to facilitate access of asylum lawyers also to professional advice of external experts, who engage in area of asylum law.

We will introduce the results of the study and proposed instruments for lawyers at the workshop for asylum lawyers in February 2015. The study and the instruments for lawyers will be finalised reflecting the feedback from the participants. Simultaneously, workshop will be an opportunity to invite also external experts who will prepare their presentations on topical issues based on findings and recommendations from analysis.

Team:

The team implementing project is composed of Miroslava Mitelmannova, Natasa Just Hrncarova, Zuzana Kazimirova and Barbora Messova. Miroslava is an attorney cooperating with HRL since its establishment in 2005 who have experiences of 10 years of provision of legal aid to asylum seekers and for almost the same number of years teaches the Asylum Law Clinic at Trnava University. Natasa is an assistant professor at the Department of Administrative, Environmental and Financial Law at Faculty of Law of Trnava University. She has been publishing and lecturing about asylum law, is a co-author of the Commentary to the Slovak Asylum Act and in 2008 - 2011 she has been a national evaluator in UNHCR Quality in Asylum Procedure projects in Slovakia. Barbora Messova is a lawyer who has experience with provision of legal aid to asylum seekers since 2005, in 2006 – 2012 worked as Protection Officer in National Office of UNHCR and is a co-author of the Commentary to the Slovak Asylum Act. Zuzana Kazimirova is a financial coordinator of the project.

The project should partially help:

• to support the education of law students a asylum lawyers
• to develop the counselling and monitoring activities in the field of legal aid in asylum procedure
• to develop the analytical, expert and publication activities
• to develop publications, studying instruments and materials
• to support the cooperation and partnership of organizations and institutions working in the area of asylum law
• indirectly also to strenghten the efectivity and enforceability of human rights in asylum procedure.

Implemented with financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Matters of the SR in the scope of the grant program Support and Protection of Human Rights LP/2014. Responsibility for the content of this document lies strictly with the Human Rights League, NGO.