Detention Action is once again taking part in the London Legal Walk on Monday 18th May 2015 at 4pm. It is a 10k walk, in which many organisations and lawyers participate. This year we’re raising funds for our legal challenge to the detention of asylum-seekers on the Detained Fast Track (DFT).
Last year we took the Home Office to court, arguing that the Detained Fast Track was unlawful. The High Court agreed, ruling that the system was so unfair as to be unlawful. The Home Office made minor changes in response, allowing asylum-seekers more time with their lawyers.
We went to the Court of Appeal to challenge the automatic detention of asylum-seekers who appeal on the DFT. Once again, we were successful, and the Home Office were ordered to only detain asylum-seeker appellants who are at risk of absconding. However, the Home Office is refusing to release around 95% of asylum-seekers.
We have a judgement that the DFT has been operating unlawfully and another judgement that the Home Office policy to detain automatically for DFT appeals is unlawful, but we need to go back to court to force real change. We have just been granted permission for a judicial review of the Tribunals’ and Lord Chancellor’s refusal to suspend the DFT appeals process, based on our Court of Appeal judgement. And we may need to go back to the High Court to argue that the whole DFT is still so unfair as to be unlawful.
This is where we need your help! We have been granted a protective costs order by the High Court, which means that if we lose, we will have to pay £12,000 of the government’s costs, as well as court fees of around £1000. If we go back to the High Court, we will need another protective costs order.
Two years ago we raised an incredible £8,698 on the London Legal Walk towards the protective costs order for our first case. We didn’t need to spend it because we won. But we now need to raise at least £15,000 more to cover our current protective costs order, and allow us to challenge the Home Office again in the High Court.
We need your help to support our campaign and challenge the Detained Fast Track in the courts. As a small charity with very limited resources, we need your support to enable us to bring these legal challenges against the unfair and unlawful Detained Fast Track.
What you can do:
1. Sponsor our team and encourage others to do so! Whether or not you are walking, please do encourage people to support us. Be Detention Action ambassadors, tell people in the pub why what we are trying to achieve is so important.
2. Walk with us! Join the team, have an impromptu supervision en route, wear a silly outfit….BUT WALK WITH US. Encourage friends and family to walk with us too!
3. If you cannot walk, do your own sponsored event or cake sale!
Link to donate/send to sponsors:
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.
Please email us at admin@detentionaction.org.uk if you are able to walk with us, or if you have any great fundraising ideas!