Addressing Irregularity

• The provision of legal advice and counselling to migrants can prove key to terminating a condition of irregularity and, as a consequence, to reducing the social challenges related to the presence of migrants with irregular status. Facilitating regularisations or returns reflects a ‘problem-solving’ approach.
• Supporting migrants in transitioning from irregularity allows for a reduction in the number of individuals living in an irregular condition, which in turn fosters more lawful conditions in the city and provides reassurance to the population regarding migrants’ status.
• The provision of immigration counselling and support for individuals’ efforts to regularise increases migrants’ trust in officials, encourages them to interact with authorities, and ultimately makes them more likely to accept advice on voluntary return.
• Providing advice on, and material support for, voluntary returns encourages more humane return practices. It is also more cost effective as voluntary returns are less expensive than detaining and forcibly deporting a person.
• Combining the provision of a service (e.g. shelter) with the provision of counselling aimed at terminating irregularity (including by encouraging return) is often a way to reconcile a municipality’s inclusive aims with regulations that restrict immigration and funding.

• Decisions regarding the regularisation or removal of irregularly-staying third country nationals do not normally fall within the competences of municipalities but are the prerogative of national authorities. Within their limited powers, however, local authorities may facilitate access to regularisation or voluntary departure through counselling and support.
• According to the European Commission: ‘Tailored individual coaching, which empowers the returnee to take in hand his/her own return has proven to be successful. A systematic horizontal coaching of all potential returnees, covering advice on possibilities for legal stay/asylum as well as on voluntary/enforced return from an early stage (and not only once forced removal decisions are taken) should be aimed at’.
• The Principles and Guidelines on the protection of the human rights of migrants in vulnerable situations (including irregular migrants) developed by the UN Human Rights Office (UN-OHCHR) with the UN Global Migration Group assert that authorities should ‘take steps to provide competent, independent, free and confidential legal and other assistance to migrants, including accessible information and interpretation services, enabling them to understand their rights and obligations as well as relevant criminal, administrative, civil and labour justice procedures’.
• EU Regulation 516/2014 establishing the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) provides that the Fund shall support, inter alia, the provision of social assistance, information or help with administrative and/or judicial formalities, and information on counselling. The Fund is also intended to support the provision of legal aid and language assistance to irregular migrants, including non-removed migrants. The specifications on how to use the Fund at national level, however, are set in National Programmes that may disregard this opportunity.
• Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) programmes offer logistical, financial and/or material assistance. The European Commission has proposed enhancing voluntary return as a first action to increase the effectiveness of the EU return system.84 Similarly, preference for voluntary return has been expressed in the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU),85 in line with the Return Directive (Art. 7) which places a general obligation on Member States to grant a period of 7 to 30 days to allow migrants issued with a return decision to leave voluntarily before enforcement measures are taken. EU Member States had to develop AVRR schemes by 1 June 2017.86 The share of voluntary returns among total returns in the EU has gradually increased from 14% in 2009 to around 40% in 2013.

Providing information, counselling and support on regularisation

Municipalities may support irregular migrants’ efforts to find a solution to their immigration status by providing information and counselling on legal opportunities for regularisation, facilitating mediation between migrants and immigration authorities, and providing support for the voluntary return of those who, through professional counselling, realise they will be unable to regularise their status.

Setting up municipal information or counselling centres on immigration matters

Municipalities may set up dedicated information centres to provide counselling (see Box 8 for Barcelona’s SAIER centre).

• The City of Ghent set up and manages an ‘info-point on migration’ (Infopunt migratie) that provides general advice and information on immigration matters to all residents of the city, including regular and irregular migrants and Belgian nationals. Irregular migrants can obtain information regarding opportunities and procedures to regularise their status, or can access voluntary return programmes. In addition, migrants receive information on services they can access in the city while their status is irregular (e.g. obtaining a medical card that allows access to a local doctor), and are referred to the relevant municipal departments or local organisations. To increase irregular migrants’ trust in municipal employees providing advice, Infopunt migratie ensures the confidentiality of data shared and collects only minimal details from clients, including nationality, gender and immigration status. A person’s name and telephone number is only requested in exceptional circumstances (for example, when a follow-up is needed).

Financially supporting independent organisations providing information or counselling

A municipality may prefer to externalise immigration counselling and advice by providing funding to local NGOs offering such services. There are several reasons for doing this including restrictive national regulations that prevent public officials from interacting with irregular migrants or require public service providers to report clients with irregular migration status. In some cases, outsourcing of services to NGOs is more cost effective, or is aimed at increasing migrants’ trust in their advisors so as to render outreach efforts more effective.

• To make sure legal advice reaches the most reluctant migrants, the City of Ghent, in addition to its ‘info-point on migration’, also financially supports an independent organisation providing immigration counselling in its ‘Transit-house’.
• To reach the highest number of irregular migrants in the city, Barcelona funds a network of 55 non-profit ‘social entities’ to provide free legal advice on obtaining regular status, renewal of expiring residence permits, and access to services in the city, as well as advice for foreign spouses of Spanish nationals. The social entities also follow the cases of migrants at risk of losing their regular migration status and can mediate on migrants’ behalf with the local administration processing immigration cases. To ensure the consistency and efficiency of the service, the municipality established the Network of Social Entities Offering Legal Advice for Foreigners (XESAJE), which facilitates the circulation of information on changes in laws and regulations affecting foreigners. It also organises periodic meetings with institutions to obtain up-to-date information on the most pressing issues for both the administration and users.
• The City of Stockholm established partnerships with NGOs offering counselling, legal advice and support to young irregular unaccompanied migrants. The City is further investigating new opportunities for partnerships with a local NGO to provide counselling to asylum seekers and migrants with irregular status.
• In Helsinki, the city provides funding to the Refugee Advice Centre to provide legal counselling. The support is considered to be temporary, but there are no specific conditions or maximum amount of time that a person can benefit from it.
• In Cardiff, legal assistance for precarious migrants is principally provided through Asylum Justice, the only charity in Wales that does not rely on legal aid and is sufficiently certified to provide both advice and representation. Asylum Justice aids refused asylum seekers to file new asylum claims, those with deportation notices, and those seeking to secure or extend their immigration status based on personal grounds.
• In Vienna, legal assistance is offered by NGOs. There is a range of ‘social counselling’ services that focus on social or labour issues and may cater to migrants with precarious status. Few NGOs specialise in migrant women and provide counselling in specific languages; they mostly provide social counselling and offer support for migrant women who, for example, have to navigate divorce proceedings. Some of these NGOs receive partial funding from various municipal departments, such as the integration and diversity department or the women’s department, as well as funding from the national or EU level. Others are exclusively funded through donations. Caritas runs the “Social and Return Counselling Centre for EU-Citizens” (Sozial- und Rückkehrberatung für EU-Bürger*innen), which assists destitute EU-migrants (rather than third country nationals) with arranging accommodation in emergency shelters, but also, when possible, supports them in claiming social benefits and with other social issues that may arise. It further funds and assists with transportation to the countries of origin, if a migrant desires to return. This service is funded by the municipality. The varying focus areas of the different counselling services can sometimes lead to variability in the attention given to cases, based on the commitment and knowledge of individuals within the counselling services, who may lack the resources or specific expertise needed to refer migrants to a different service.
• In Frankfurt, the local authority financially supports various facilities that offer ‘social counselling’ for migrants. In addition, the Women's Department funds counselling services for women who have experienced violence, which are open to women regardless of their residence status. Furthermore, various organisations providing counselling to migrants receive partial funding by the state of Hesse.

Offering mediation mechanisms between migrants and immigration authorities to obtain guidance on regularisation issues

Municipalities (or their partners) can act as intermediaries to facilitate interaction between immigration authorities and individuals who otherwise would not approach authorities. The mediation may be conducted by municipal employees if they are not required to report irregular migrants or by a private partner.

• The Social Services Department of the City of Athens, when certifying that women with irregular status have been victims of violence, has been negotiating the issuance of humanitarian permits on victims’ behalf with the Greek Ministry of Interior.

In countries where public officials are required to report irregular migrants, municipalities may install a system of anonymous individual case reviews.

• The City of Munich has entered into partnership with a local NGO to take on cases of irregular migrants living in the city and discuss individual situations in an anonymous manner with immigration authorities. This allows the authority to assess individual situations and either suggest ways to regularise status or state that there is no prospect of an alternative to removal. The NGO thus obtains official individual consultations without having to disclose a migrant’s identity and can advise migrants accordingly on their possibilities to regularise, or alternatively encourage them to join programmes of assisted voluntary return.

Embedding immigration counselling within local shelters and other facilities providing services

Municipalities may combine the provision of a service with legal counselling on immigration matters.

• The Mayor of London, for instance, in association with a charitable foundation (Trust for London) developed a pilot scheme to embed legal support on immigration matters and guidance for children with irregular status in local primary schools.

Professional legal advice on immigration may be offered within a shelter for irregular migrants. This solution allows for individual and close follow-up of the immigration cases of the shelter’s residents and builds trust between migrants and legal advisors who ultimately may be able to encourage migrants to accept advice on voluntary return. The provision of legal advice within shelters shapes the practice around a ‘problem-solving approach’ rather than solely service provision.

• The City of Utrecht is funding NGOs to offer shelters for unsuccessful asylum seekers and other individuals with irregular immigration status. Legal advice on immigration cases is offered within the shelter. Legal staff in the shelter advise on asylum appeals and other avenues to obtain a residence permit (e.g. on family or medical grounds). If a chance of regularisation is identified, municipal officers subsequently mediate for individual migrants with national immigration officers to confirm that the solution identified is indeed viable. Legal staff then follow up on the procedure for regularisation. If no chance of regularisation is identified, the migrant is encouraged to participate in a programme of assisted voluntary return.

Developing guidance and outreach activity for residents with irregular status

Municipalities may develop guidance and outreach activities to inform residents with irregular or insecure immigration status regarding the possibility of regularising their status, and on the steps to follow to secure regular status. Several cities such as Ghent and Milan are in the process of putting in place a one-stop-shop, similar to the Barcelona one (see Box 8) on migration related services.

• In the City of Ghent, local outreach services work closely together with the federal service Reach Out of Fedasil to find and to inform migrants with irregular migration status about their options.
• The Greater London Authority (GLA), in partnership with specialised NGOs and with the support of philanthropic charities, developed two sets of guidance aimed at supporting young Londoners who have been living and growing up in the city with insecure immigration status to secure a legal right to residence in the UK. Both sets of guidance are hosted on the website of the Mayor of London. One set of guidance is aimed at informing young Londoners about their rights and how to receive professional support in London. The other set supports professionals helping young Londoners in changing their immigration status. In addition, the guidance directs irregular migrants to relevant local civil society organisations according to their advice needs. The expertise necessary for developing the guidance was secured through a secondment of civil society experts within the city administration, funded by philanthropic organisations. In addition, the GLA carried out outreach activities including hosting a ‘Young Londoners Forum’ for young people with insecure status and workshops for the city’s officials and professionals.