Legal Fund
Please Donate Generously
Find more information about this campaign below.
How you can help
At IHRC Legal, we have helped nearly 200 people with irregular immigration status obtain residency in the UK. We have also helped over 30 individuals with leave to remain remove restrictions on their immigration status so that they can access benefits, allowing them to live in a more sustainable way.
Many of our clients have had their lives and families torn apart by persecution, conflict, abuse, and extreme poverty. We support some of the most vulnerable migrants in the country, helping them to regularise their immigration status allowing them to access vital support. These individuals, families and children would otherwise be forced to live in the “hostile environment” created by the UK Government, vulnerable to sexual exploitation, abuse, modern day slavery, homelessness and neglect. Many fear accessing essential services such as the NHS, even when heavily pregnant, as they fear being charged tens of thousands of pounds by the NHS and reported to the authorities.
Our expert advice, guidance, and experience in immigration law allows migrants to live dignified lives, giving them an opportunity to rebuild their lives in the UK.
The Legal Fund supports individuals who:
- do not have leave to remain in the UK, but have reasonable prospects of succeeding with an application to the Home Office, and their immigration case is not covered by legal aid; or
- have leave to remain but are subject to a condition preventing them from accessing public funds/benefits.
Your donation helps vulnerable migrants to regularise their immigration status: settling into safe new homes, getting access to benefits, healthcare, schooling, finding rewarding jobs and contributing to society.
This is a Zakat eligible fund, out of the eight possible recipients of Zakat, our beneficiaries fall into these possible categories as mentioned in the Quran:
- Poor
- The needy
- Wayfarer
- Those in debt
- Those in bondage
Please give generously
“I gave the pledge of allegiance to the Prophet (ﷺ) for offering prayer perfectly, giving Zakat and giving good advice to every Muslim” – Hadith
“I heard the Prophet (ﷺ) saying, “There is no envy except in two: a person whom Allah has given wealth and he spends it in the right way, and a person whom Allah has given wisdom and he gives his decisions accordingly and teaches it to the others” – Hadith
Ahmed and Zaynab’s story
Ahmed and Zaynab came to the UK to study. Whilst in the UK they had three children, Adam, Fatima and baby Maryam.
At the end of their studies Ahmed and Zaynab stayed in the UK without making any further applications – they became overstayers. They and their children had made the UK their home, with all their friends and social life here.
However, the government’s hostile environment policy means that life is difficult for them:
- Ahmed and Zaynab are not allowed to find work. What work is offered to them is low paid, and menial.
- They have been offered work by “agents” who demand that they hand over 50% or more of their salary for simply finding them the job.
- They are not allowed to access basic benefits like child benefit or other public funds.
- They are not allowed to rent a home, so are forced to live in squalid housing provided by unscrupulous landlords.
- They are forced to use food banks to get hold of essentials, including nappies and formula for the baby.
- Ahmed and Zaynab often go without food so their children have enough to eat.
Ahmed, Zaynab and their children are eligible to apply for leave to remain in the UK. But there is a catch, the Home Office want near £12,000 in fees for the application. The family cannot afford such a large sum given their circumstances.
IHRC Legal can assist the family to apply for a fee waiver – which will ask the Home Office to waive the £12,000 in application fees. Once successful we will then apply for them to regularise their status in the UK.
We need your help for the family to regularise their stay in the UK – to allow them to work, to rent a decent home and live a dignified life. By contributing to the IHRC Legal fund, you can help cover the costs of the legal work necessary to regularise their status in the UK.
- £300 to assist Ahmed to regularise his status
- £300 to assist Zaynab to regularise her status
- £200 to assist Adam to regularise his status
- £200 to assist Fatima to regularise her status
- £200 to assist Maryam to regularise her status**
*Ahmed and Zaynab’s story is fictional, however what is described is a composite of real clients and their stories that IHRC Legal has dealt with.
**Each application costs £1200, and is not affected by the number of applicants i.e. it costs the same whether it is one person or a family of six. The breakdown given above is based on a family of five, and is for illustrative purposes only.
