Well.
After surviving the General Election followed by a pretty crappy Bank holiday the weather is just amazing here in London right now as I look out over the glittering Thames just a little way down the road from our Refugee Action Waterloo office. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Jim Glennon
Mark Campbell, a former volunteer with Refugee Action, looks back on his experiences mentoring a refugee and reminds us that we can all make a difference to the lives of refugees – one pie or poem at a time…
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Posted by Sara Ayech
On the day that the UK’s quarterly asylum statistics are released, Danny Dorling, professor of human geography at Sheffield University, reminds us to take a comparative perspective when looking at refugee flows.
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Posted by Sara Ayech
By Carys Davis, Public Affairs Officer
Yesterday’s Queen’s Speech laid out the legislative plan for the next 18 months, listing all the Bills we can expect the government to introduce based on their programme published last week. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Sara Ayech
By Ahmad Masood Wahed
“The peak of Islam, the heart of Asia…”
“Forever free the land of Arians…”
… are lines from one of the hundreds of national anthems Afghans have sung throughout the centuries. This poor nation has saluted hundreds of colours and shapes of flags, and danced to thousands of various songs composed by the sound of the gun.
Posted by Chiara Gnoli
By Carys Davies, Public Affairs Officer
The excitement of the election has passed and as the ministerial appointments flood in, we at Refugee Action are left pondering how the new government and its decisions will affect our work and our clients. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Sara Ayech
It seems just a little bit amazing but almost half of UK citizens volunteer at least once a month with charities, churches or local campaigning groups and whichever political party (or parties) are elected to power in our current general election all have plans to promote and support volunteering even more in the years ahead. Indeed, all political parties organise almost entirely with volunteers at a local level so I guess that’s not as surprising as it sounds.
So what are the key volunteering priorities of each political party?
Posted by Jim Glennon
We haven’t included Plaid Cymru or SNP here as we only work within England, but the BBC cover all parties. To find out more, use the BBC’s online tool to compare the parties’ stances on race and immigration issues, under which they include the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers. Use the drop down menus to explore beyond the ‘big three’. |
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LabourLabour deals with asylum and immigration in the ‘crime and immigration’ section of their manifesto. Their approach emphasises the record low number of asylum claims and low cost to the taxpayer of the asylum system. They claim faster decisions are often fairer decisions and they will continue to aim to process all applications within 6 months. They also promise to continue to tackle human trafficking. |
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ConservativeThe Conservatives 2010 manifesto does not mention any proposed changes to the asylum system but the party has recently condemned slow decision-making and increasing backlogs. In the past the Tory-led Centre for Social Justice suggested an asylum system in which applicants are given more leeway to establish a good case and which encourages voluntary returns. In 2005 their manifesto called for all asylum applications to take place outside the country and for the UK to withdraw from the 1951 Refugee Convention. |
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Liberal DemocratsThe Lib Dems would take the responsibility for the asylum system away from the Home Office and hand it over to an independent agency, while pushing for an EU wide plan to ensure that the responsibility is shared fairly between EU states. They would allow asylum seekers to work, end the detention of children and explore options such as residence restrictions and tagging for adults considered at risk of absconding. |
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Green PartyThe Greens would deal with applications within 3 months and allow asylum seekers to work during this time, ending detention for all but the most exceptional circumstances. They would also allow asylum seekers to be joined by their partner and partner’s family. They would entitle asylum seekers to full welfare benefits, boost reception facilities, housing, language training and legal support, oppose destitution and support the recognition of LGBT people as a social group as defined by the 1951 convention. |
We thought we should also fill you in on what UKIP and the BNP’s policies are on these issues (although as a supporter of Refugee Action we’d assume you won’t be voting for the BNP!). Both parties would freeze immigration, UKIP for the next five years and the BNP for all but ‘exceptional cases.’
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UKIPThey would withdraw from the 1951 Convention and replace it with a UK Asylum Act specifying the conditions which decide who should be granted asylum and with a limit on the number of refugees the country would accept. All asylum seekers will be held in secure and ‘humane’ centres until a decision is made. Decisions won’t be appealable. The party would also end what it calls the ‘doctrine of multiculturalism’ by government and public bodies. |
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BNPThe BNP would immediately deport 2 million people it claims are here illegally and deport anyone who has committed a crime whose nationality is not British. It would review all recent grants of residence or citizenship and offer financial incentives for those of foreign descent to leave the country. It would automatically reject all asylum seekers who passed through safe countries on their way to Britain. |
Hope Not HateIf you are concerned about BNP or other far-right activity in your area, the Hope Not Hate campaign has a network of local groups who are campaigning against the BNP in their communities. |
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Posted by Sara Ayech
So, it’s happened. We’ve done it. The Secret Millionaire has been to Refugee Action and done his stuff, and the watching public has heard a little about the struggle faced by destitute asylum seekers.
My phone never stopped ringing and beeping after the programme started, with loads of wonderful and supportive messages from colleagues, friends, family etc. Some of you liked the cross-stitch on our wall (a wedding present from a friend nearly 17 years ago), my best friend wondered idly on exactly which date we had purchased our new car! My wife was relieved the house looked decent. I must confess I was slightly disappointed that Mo, our cat, despite being filmed outside the house on the day Jahan came to visit, didn’t make it into the final cut.
Posted by Aidan Hallet
So, at last, the secret’s out. It’s been hard enough keeping it to myself since October. By now you’ll all know what’s been happening.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Before I tell you what’s happened, I need to tell you how we got to this point.
Over the last few months, as well as raising money by walking to Loughborough and back, I’ve been part of a team thinking about the problem of destitute asylum seekers and how we can find long term solutions to their destitution.
Posted by Aidan Hallet