RLS-Athens is a response to the ongoing refugee crisis in Greece. The project primarily seeks to address the acute difficulty that refugees in Greece face in accessing legal assistance to enable them to access their rights and to offer solidarity to refugees and to those working with them in Greece.
Operating as a collective fund held with the Prism pre-charitable platform (as such having the benefit of a Charity Number), the collective fund purpose is; to provide free legal support and assistance to refugees in Greece; promote the acquisition of life-long vocational skills by training refugees as community interpreters; provide support to Greek asylum lawyers; advance the education of Greek lawyers and law students in international asylum and refugee law and to empower refugees to advocate for themselves. This purpose is currently primarily delivered via a pro bono legal clinic in Athens.
The project was set up in April 2017 by a group of UK asylum and immigration lawyers. The clinic is currently hosted by the Athens Solidarity Centre, a hub for civil society organisations in Greece. A rota of expert volunteer asylum lawyers travel to Athens from the UK and offer free, expert legal assistance to refugees.
The RLS clinic is unique in Greece in focusing particularly on assisting refugees in identifying and operating legal routes to reunification with family members elsewhere in Europe through the Dublin reunification procedure or the relevant EU member state's family reunion process. Subsidiary activities include; support articulating and evidencing asylum claims, advice and information sessions, outreach, collaboration with legal actors in the sector via contribution to strategic litigation, legal education and capacity building within the Greek asylum law community and the training of community interpreters.
