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Refugee Advocacy Service of South Australia Inc. (RASSA) is a non-profit Community Legal Centre in South Australia. It was set up in 2002 to represent asylum-seekers in the Federal Court of Australia. From about 2007, it was de-funded and ceased to exist. It has, however, now began functioning again in order to assist asylum-seekers in the community in South Australia whose applications are still being processed. ==History== In April 2002, a group of lawyers from the Woomera Lawyers' Group set up and established the Refugee Advocacy Service of South Australia Inc.. The purpose of the center was to organise and centralise files for the vast number of asylum seekers who had sought, or were seeking, a judicial review of their original decisions in the Federal Court of Australia. RASSA was originally conceived as a clearing house. However, it was not always able to locate appropriate solicitors. It often went on file as the instructing solicitor. Almost all of the work performed by the service or through the service was on a pro bono basis, with the exception of one employed legal officer or lawyer who worked part-time and one employed administrative officer. A group of lawyers, often comprising board members and other senior lawyers, reviewed each file to determine whether there was a prospect of a case being run. The legal officer and the board, who almost without exception were legally trained, would then seek out pro bono counsel to run the case. RASSA's purpose was to provide legal representation for asylum seekers in the Federal Court of Australia and to assist asylum seekers in getting their cases remitted back to the Refugee Review Tribunal. RASSA's efforts were frustrated by the Commonwealth Parliament's inclusion of a privative clause into the Migration Act. This clause narrowly restricted the grounds of judicial review. RASSA survived almost entirely on donations sent in from supportive members of the community or from fund raising events. RASSA was also awarded several grants. The centre also accumulated a number of cost orders which were donated by counsel when granted orders whilst acting for asylum seekers on behalf of the service. The service was recognised as filling a major gap in legal services to a marginalised minority in a time of acute sensitivity in the Australian community to the issue of refugees. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Refugee Advocacy Service of South Australia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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