MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The charity said that the situation had deteriorated since April 2013, when the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offender Act (LASPO) was introduced, stripping unaccompanied children of legal aid for immigration cases not related to their asylum applications.
"Vulnerable migrant children who are in the UK alone are facing a punishing combination of cuts to help with legal costs and skyrocketing Home Office fees as they struggle to resolve their complex immigration cases," the press release said commenting on the update to the charity's 2015 report dubbed Cut Off from Justice.
The charity added that despite the fact that such children still had the possibility of using the Exceptional Case Funding scheme aimed at support of the most vulnerable people of the society, as legal complications resulted in only 15 applications being filed under the scheme in 2015-2016. This figure is only a fraction of the 2,490 applications received per year before the implementation of the LASPO.
