Clinic director, Kate Laverty, talks about what summer 2021 has been like for the clinic so far, and what our summer students and volunteer students have been working on throughout the break.

I find it hard to believe that we are facing another summer working from home – it certainly has it’s pros and cons especially during this blistering heatwave. I can’t complain however as I had a completely energising break in South Uist in the Outer Hebrides.

As usual we are continuing to operate a full service throughout the summer and in fact we are often even busier during the summer. Our fantastic team of summer students have hit the ground running. We have a number of general case workers each of them very busy with new and existing cases. These students allow us to continue to represent people over the summer and fulfil our commitments to existing clients many of whom have ongoing employment tribunal proceedings, SSSC hearings or simple procedure actions. We were very fortunate to have the support of Law at Work this year who funded one of our summer interns.

Our two student directors are working away on various matters to get us ready for the year ahead. They have made great headway with our Annual Report, updating the website, working on a new idea for a podcast as well as numerous other tasks.

We were delighted that The Strathclyde Alumni Fund supported a project to get a new Street Law idea up and running and the student assigned to this task has been very productive. She has been working with a number of community organisations discussing the kinds of legal information that would help their members and how best to communicate this information. Our students working on The Asylum Project and the Scottish Women’s Rights Centre have been working on cases, training materials and many other tasks relating to their projects.

Although we have a number of different students in different roles what they have in common is drive and enthusiasm and this is all the more impressive when working from home. We would have loved to have them interacting and sharing ideas in our office environment but working from home has not prevented this from happening. We meet every morning at the very least and it never fails to amaze me how they maintain their motivation and their very positive attitude to clinic work. Each of them is driven to learn as much as they can and contribute ideas about various aspects of the Clinic’s operation and this makes them a joy to work with.

We also have very dedicated student volunteers who, despite their various work, family and social commitments, continue to work hard on their cases and projects throughout the summer on an entirely voluntary basis. We could not do half the amount of work we do without them and they inspire us all. We owe them all a huge thanks.

Kate Laverty, Director

Student Directors: Jordan Hamlett and Rebecca Dyer

TAP: Francesca Pozzo

SWRC: Erin Connor

Street Law: Nicola Maguire

Case Workers: Carly Morrison, Carmen Rowatt, Cara Hope, Mhairi Strachan

Volunteer Students: We wish we could name you all, but a big thank you to all that have, and continue to help throughout the summer.

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Before we say goodbye to University of Strathclyde Law Clinic’s, Murray Kemp, he writes about his experience working with refugees before joining the Law Clinic and his time as the The Asylum Project (‘TAP’) Coordinator for 2020-21.

Before I joined the clinic, my interest in the asylum process was kickstarted by coverage of the “Refugee Crisis” back in 2015. Although the crisis was merely a high point in what has been a constant stream of people arriving into the UK, the intensified media coverage inspired me to help, so I spent 3 months volunteering with a kitchen project in Patras, Greece.

Once I began my degree, and long after the media spotlight had left, I made a commitment to continue helping the types of people I previously encountered in Greece. As I had always wanted to use my degree to help people and not just line shareholders’ pockets, partly inspired by Meadow in the HBO series, ‘The Sopranos’, I thought that volunteering at an inner-city law clinic seemed like a good place to start. I joined the clinic and took up several cases, but my main focus was ‘The Asylum Project’ (TAP). It was great to get involved, and under the guidance of Jordan Hamlett and Kudakwashe Chinyani, I met my first two clients.

Little did I know that these would be the last clients I met in person. News of a strange virus sweeping through a city in China began to move into my periphery, and before long COVID had hit and we were put into lockdown. This brought new challenges for TAP. Firstly, the training program needed a new format. Previously it had ran as a one-off session, which although informative, limited the amount of people that could join the project. With the help of summer student, Lauryn Dawber, we made a new, pre-recorded training session that meant people could join the project whenever they wanted. A steady stream of volunteers trickled into the project thereafter, and our casework team had great success, with two successful claims in one year meaning 6 people attained refugee status.

The next big challenge was how to do the forum theatre, an interactive public education session that had previously been shown at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. As students were prevented from meeting up, the options were either performing the theatre on Zoom (which was met with universal reluctance) or me whipping something up myself. After roping together a few flatmates and restructuring the script, we filmed a 20-minute-long movie on Snow White entering the UK asylum system. The show debuted at the online fair known as the St Andrew’s Fair Saturday, where it was met with much applause.

Altogether my time at the clinic has been inspiring and a lot of fun. It has been difficult not being able to speak to people face to face, but at least I got one short, sweet semester in the clinic office. I am excited to see how the new EU Immigration IACs work out, and how TAP continues to provide such a valuable service. As the UK Home Office ramps up its Hostile Environment policy and slides deeper and deeper into authoritarianism, the new recruits have their work cut out for them. But then again, the Home Office do not seem to be having much success in Glasgow these days, so I’m sure they will find a way.

Article by Murray Kemp, TAP Coordinator 2020-21.

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