Legal advice and representation to immigration detainees in the UK (360G-CR-4908507)

COVID19 -We would like an unrestricted grant to continue to provide legal advice and representation to immigration detainees in the UK, especially those held solely under immigration powers in prisons, and also to strengthen our capacity to lobby the government for the release of all immigration detainees during the pandemic. We plan to bring in short-term additional cover to assist our current legal managers in their legal casework, working alongside our current prisons' project manager but also delivering additional support to other legal managers. Migrants are currently being held in either detention centres or prisons despite the worst public health crisis in living memory, and despite the fact that they cannot be removed from the UK. Our aim is to continue to apply for bail to get detainees released, since the Home Office has so far failed to respond in any meaningful way to our correspondence. Since lockdown was announced BID has applied for bail in 68 cases, of which 65 were successful. This has clearly irked the Home Office which has written to the President of the Immigration & Asylum Chamber expressing displeasure at the numbers of cases being granted bail.