Annual Report 2024 > 4. Legal Assistance Scheme for Non-refoulement Claimants

4.1 The Legal Assistance Scheme for Non-refoulement Claimants provides legal representation and advice to claimants who have lodged non-refoulement claims under the Unified Screening Mechanism in respect of the following risks:

With effect from 12 September 2016, the Immigration Department has started referring claimants back to the Duty lawyer Service in relation to claims on Article 2 of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights (“BOR2”).

4.2 Our scope of service under this Scheme includes:-

	(a)	Assisting claimants under the Legal Assistance Scheme for Non-refoulement Claimants in articulating and advancing the relevant grounds and particulars of their non-refoulement claim by giving advice and assistance in completion of the relevant claim form(s);
	(b)	Ensuring timely and complete submissions made by the claimants within the specified time limit;
	(c)	Accompanying claimants to attend interview(s), if considered necessary by the Duty Lawyer;
	(d)	Assessing merits of appeals and/or petitions;
	(e)	For appeals and/or petitions considered meritorious by the Duty Lawyer, preparing submissions for the claimants and representing the claimants at oral hearing, if any;
	(f)	(f) For cases considered meritorious by the Duty Lawyer, assisting the claimants in making a request to re-open a non-refoulement claim or to make a subsequent claim by providing sufficient evidence in writing to satisfy an immigration officer in accordance with the applicable procedures set out by the Director of Immigration; and
	(g)	Preparing submissions for the claimants in an objection notice on revocation of immigration officer’s pervious decision to accept non-refoulement claim or Torture Claims Appeal Board’s previous decision to reverse decision rejecting non-refoulement claim.

4.3 Claimants under the Legal Assistance Scheme for Non-refoulement Claimants applying for legal assistance have to make statutory declaration that they are without means to pay the cost for legal representation before they are eligible for assistance. This service is also completely free of charge. Up to 2024, a total of 28,263 claims were handled.

4.4 The number of daily intake under the Legal Assistance Scheme for Non-refoulement Claimants grew from two when it commenced operation in 2009 to four (on 12 July 2010), six (on 7 June 2011), seven (on 7 September 2012), eight (on 8 October 2012), nine (transitional) (on 7 April 2014), 10 (transitional) (on 15 April 2014), 11 (transitional) (on 2 May 2014), 11 (on 15 April 2015) and 13 (on 24 August 2015). The daily intake was scaled down to four (on 12 November 2018), but was increased to eight (on 16 February 2021) and 11 (on 15 November 2021). From 4 July 2022, the number of referral reduced to eight again. On 16 October 2023 onward, the number of daily intake increased to nine. From 2 January 2024, the number of intake reduced to eight again. But on 14 February 2024 onward, the number of intake increased to eleven.

4.5 There are 620 active duty lawyers participating in the Legal Assistance Scheme for Non-refoulement Claimants (Appendix A-5) which comprises 409 Barristers and 211 Solicitors who have more than three years post qualification experience and have also undergone the relevant training programmes organized by the Hong Kong Academy of Law and the Bar Association.

4.6 As stated in 4.3 above up to 31 December 2024, the Legal Assistance Scheme for Non-refoulement Claimants has received and taken up a total of 28,263 claims from the Immigration Department. Of the 28,263 claims received:

4.7 The Duty Lawyer Service has lodged a total of 1,950 appeal/petitions upon the advice of duty lawyers.

4.8 The Duty Lawyer Service has 144 successful cases involving 268 claimants with their Non-refoulement Claims being substantiated, 48 of which are delivered by the Immigration Department at Tier 1 and 96 of which are delivered by the Torture Claims Appeal Board at Tier 2.