Photo © Sarah Booker
Started in April 2017, UK-based experienced immigration and asylum lawyers travel to Athens to provide pro bono support to refugees and Greek lawyers. Based at the Khora Community Centre, we provide legal support for refugees and training for volunteers and interpreters. Interpreters are drawn from the Greek refugee community, who receive free training and are paid for their work.

Our main priorities are:
1) Preparing refugees for asylum interviews;
2) Identifying and assisting in obtaining necessary evidence;
3) Assisting with family reunion and reunification applications;
4) Providing free interpreter training to refugees to provide them with sustainable long-term skills.

Thanks to your donations, we have been able to provide free legal advice to over 250 refugees since April 2017. We have assisted with more than 50 family reunion applications and some of our clients have already been accepted for reunion with family members in other parts of the EU (on average applications of this nature take between two and three years).

To run the pro bono clinic costs approximately £3,000 per month, which covers project coordination; paying interpreters; basic admin outlays and volunteer accommodation. All RLS lawyers give their time pro bono which amounts to approximately 80 hours per week.

Your donations so far have helped us raise over £13,000 for the project. Please help us raise an additional £6,000 to keep the project running til at least the end of April 2018.
-A donation of £30 pays for an interpreter for a 3 hour interview preparation session.
-A donation of £100 pays for 10 hours' interpreter time which covers 1 day's work for lawyers.
-A donation of £150 covers a lawyer's basic admin costs for a week.

FB at: https://www.facebook.com/RLSAthens
Twitter: @RLS-Athens

Thank you!