Government publicizes job power to focus on ‘crooked’ immigration attorneys

The authorities has introduced a “task force” to root out dodgy attorneys after reviews that false asylum claims are being submitted for a charge.

The Home Office mentioned the unit would convey collectively regulatory our bodies, regulation enforcement groups and different authorities departments to behave in opposition to solicitors and barristers discovered to be deceiving the courts.

The information comes following reviews within the Daily Mail {that a} variety of solicitors agreed to assist an undercover journalist posing as an financial migrant submit a false utility in alternate for hundreds of kilos.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) prohibits attorneys from deceiving courts, and any act of dishonesty or lack of integrity could end in them being struck off.

But the Law Society, which represents solicitors in England and Wales, mentioned the mandatory powers are already in place to cope with immigration advisers engaged in misconduct.

It added the Home Office is specializing in a “tiny minority of lawyers” slightly than “significant” asylum declare backlogs and “the unworkability of the Illegal Migration Act”.

The Home Office mentioned the Professional Enablers Taskforce had been finishing up preliminary work over the previous few months.

This has included the event of a brand new coaching bundle for frontline employees who work within the immigration system to assist them establish and report suspect exercise, in line with the division.

There is not any new funding for the taskforce

Police referrals have additionally been made the place felony exercise is suspected, the Home Office added.

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The announcement got here after the primary 15 migrants boarded the Bibby Stockholm barge, amid others being granted a last-minute reprieve after a collection of authorized challenges.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman, talking concerning the job power, mentioned: “Crooked immigration lawyers must be rooted out and brought to justice.

“While the vast majority of attorneys act with integrity – we all know that some are mendacity to assist unlawful migrants sport the system. It just isn’t proper or honest on those that play by the principles.

“The British people want us to put an end to illegal migration – I am determined to crack down on these immoral lawyers and stop the boats.”

But Richard Atkinson, deputy vp of the Law Society, mentioned: “This ‘task force’ has been around for months now, so it is not clear what, if anything, the government is announcing today.”

He added: “The focus of the Home Office on a tiny minority of lawyers to which they are apparently applying considerable resources should not deflect from the fact that there remains significant backlogs in asylum claims or the unworkability of the Illegal Migration Act.”

For Labour, shadow justice secretary Steve Reed mentioned it was “too little too late” and the “buck stops” with the Conservatives, accusing them of getting “sat idly by for 13 years while illegal migration has spun out of control”.