The Southwest is a legal advice ‘desert’, particularly for immigration advice*.
The Southwest Immigration Alliance is a project funded by the Justice Together Initiative (JTI) to increase access to specialist immigration advice in the Southwest region.
The project is based on collaboration between legal advice providers and asylum and refugee support organisations – a total of 8 partners are involved.
The project is delivering:
- In Bristol, Gloucester, and Swindon: Improving referral pathways, with added complex casework capacity (at Bristol Law Centre)
- In Devon & Cornwall (Plymouth and Exeter area): building capacity to develop sustainable ecosystem – relationships and other development work.
- Shared best practice, training and joint work around quality
- Voice & Influence work towards better systems, funding and policy
- Ensuring the voice of lived experience is heard, and that partners are clearly anti-racist in their work
*A report (click to download) by Bristol Refugee Rights and Bristol Law Centre, funded by the Justice Together Initiative (JTI), highlighted the lack of adequate legal specialist immigration advice in the region and since it was published in September 2022 the situation has become more challenging.