By CASEY NEILL
NEW legal support for asylum seekers will help them to make their case for refugee status.
Attorney-General and Keysborough MP Martin Pakula launched the Legacy Caseload Initiative on Sunday 17 April.
The new partnership between Victoria Legal Aid, Justice Connect and Refugee Legal is designed to help 11,000 asylum seekers on bridging visas or in immigration detention.
During the next two years, the Legacy Caseload Initiative will provide two specialist immigration lawyers, a co-ordinator to finalise pro bono or low-cost legal assistance, and three lawyers at Refugee Legal.
Refugee Legal is the only Community Legal Centre in Victoria that specialises in Commonwealth refugee and immigration law, and provides legal assistance to asylum seekers, refugees and disadvantaged migrants in the community and in detention.
Through the Community Legal Centres Assistance Fund, the State Government has provided $50,000 to Refugee Legal to expand its migration advice services in Melbourne and across rural and regional Victoria.
Springvale Monash Legal Service (SMLS) executive director Kristen Wallwork said individuals regularly sought legal assistance with immigration matters but that SMLS was neither funded nor able to support the necessary registrations to provide assistance.
“SMLS thinks it is a fantastic commitment and recognition of the legal needs of some the most vulnerable people in our society,” she said.
“Australian society can only be stronger by supporting people who have had to leave their homes for refuge from civil unrest.
“This is what makes us a diverse and rich country.”
Mr Pakula said the initiative would provide those who most needed support with the legal assistance to navigate the complex process of seeking refugee status.
“This is about helping those who have risked their lives in the hope of making a better life for themselves in Australia,” he said.
The ‘legacy caseload’ refers to 11,000 asylum seekers who arrived in Australia by boat between August 2012 and January 2014.
The Federal Government in 2014 withdrew legal assistance funding for those arrivals and further legislative changes deny them the right to review an adverse primary decision affecting their refugee claim.
