2014 marks the 20th anniversary of the Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees (AVID). 

AVID has decided to create a resource and archive of visitors’ testimonies over the years. The initiative is aimed to explore the relationship between the visitor and the detainee, in its variety of forms and experiences. 

It will also record the growth of volunteer visiting in response to the expansion of immigration detention in the UK. 
If you are willing to share your personal experience with AVID, or want to know more, contact: 
[email protected] 

Due to the recent extensive legal aid cuts, the funding for non-asylum appeals has been abolished: this means that legal aid is no longer provided for family and/or private life, deportation cases, with evident risks of breaching their right to a family life. 

Legal aid is still available for tribunal bail applications and judicial review, but legal aid payments are now only given if the permission for judicial review is granted: it obviously implies that many lawyers are now reluctant to proceed with cases, because of the risk of working for free. 

Moreover, following this regrettable tendency, assisted voluntary return for immigration detainees, previously conducted by Refugee Action, has been cut as well, due to a Home Office decision. At the current time, as far as we can see, no plans to replace AVR have been arranged.