Community & Social Justice Poverty & Inclusion 2025
Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit (GMIAU)

Impact Report 2025

Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit (GMIAU) has been providing free specialist immigration legal advice and representation in the North West for over 35 years. In 2024/25 the organisation took on 594 legal cases for people from 58 nationalities, closed 671 cases, and gave legal advice to 2,760 people — securing 236 grants of refugee status or humanitarian protection, 130 grants of indefinite leave to remain and 75 grants of limited leave to remain. GMIAU is the only not-for-profit provider of specialist immigration legal advice at scale in the North West, operating against an intensifying hostile environment, legal aid crisis and rising far-right activity. The organisation runs specialist work for unaccompanied children, domestic abuse survivors and Windrush victims, alongside campaigning and policy work challenging systemic injustice. A new CEO, Neil Frackelton, took over from outgoing CEO Denise McDowell following her 17-year tenure.

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📋About

Immigration legal advice and representation (asylum, trafficking, family reunion, deportation, detention, domestic abuse, citizenship for children in care); Children's Asylum Project; All4One Youth Group for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children; Young Leaders programme; Windrush support; 10-Year Route casework; eVisa digital status transition support; destitution and homelessness prevention; policy and campaigns work; North West Migrant Rights Conference; training for voluntary and statutory sector partners; Women Asylum Seekers Together partnership sessions; drop-in advice in asylum hotels Custom geography from upload: North West England

📊Key Metrics

594 legal cases taken on (July 2024–June 2025) for people from 58 nationalities across 23 of 24 North West local authority areas; 671 legal cases closed; 2,760 people given legal advice Key Metric 1
236 grants of refugee status or humanitarian protection secured; 130 grants of indefinite leave to remain; 75 grants of limited leave to remain; 85 asylum applications for unaccompanied children Key Metric 2
3,900 referral forms received; 1,284 advice phone calls handled; 1,190 people given legal advice even though cases could not be taken on; only not-for-profit provider of specialist immigration legal advice at this scale in the North West Key Metric 3

✅Key Outcomes

  • New CEO Neil Frackelton appointed following outgoing CEO Denise McDowell's 17-year tenure; first dedicated Communications Officer appointed to strengthen media and community voice; North West Migrant Rights Conference co-hosted with Garden Court North Chambers in 2025
  • 168 adult asylum applications and appeals; 83 human rights-based leave to remain applications; 81 domestic abuse-related leave to remain applications; cases span every level of the legal system from First-tier Tribunal to Supreme Court; judicial review used to challenge unlawful Home Office decisions
  • Operating against backdrop of suspended refugee family reunion, ramped-up deportations, far-right riots in 2024, routine intimidation outside asylum accommodation in 2025, and growing legal aid crisis — more people need immigration advice than there are advisers to support them across the North West

📍Geography

North West

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