Immigration and Nationality Information Deficit

Ongoing research to maintain Advice Services Alliance's Advicenow website has revealed that there is far less information available to the public on immigration and nationality than there was in 2006.

This is due, in part to the Immigration Advisory Service (IAS) closing its information service. The Chief Executive of IAS explained that they had withdrawn the written advice on their website because they did not have the resources to keep up to date with all the rapid changes being made to the law and regulations.

In many important areas there is very little information, for example asylum for children, detention and enforcement. Worryingly there is very little about new legislation, such as the points based scheme which came into force last year.

Advicenow comment that even where there is information, it borders on statements of policy rather than information for the public. ‘Unexplained jargon is rife, little is done to provide an overview or explain related issues, emotional issues are not addressed and information is not tailored to its audience.’ They conclude that there is an information deficit for immigration and nationality across civil law and rights topic areas.

Information Review: Immigration and Nationality Information Deficit (12 KB)