Thoughts on the passing of The Nationality and Borders Act 2022
Alex Kempton, Operations and Campaigns Manager
Last week, on 27th April 2022, the Nationality and Borders Bill made its final passage through the House and is going for Royal Assent, the final stage of being made law.
There have been, and will be, lots of opinion pieces about this law in the coming days – as there have been in the previous months - railing against the inhumanity, immorality and potential illegality of its contents.
But being at work this week with our team of dedicated staff, I wanted to take this opportunity to give a glimpse of what we do, and will continue to do, with people seeking refuge to highlight the need for continued solidarity in the months ahead.
Today we had our weekly team meeting where we discussed what we’re working on, issues which have come up for the participants we support, and upcoming issues and events in the coming months.
We talked about our event last week – supporting a Kurdish Syrian woman in cooking for 20 people at a venue in Hastings run by EggTooth – a mental health charity with whom we have a collaboration agreement. This event allowed the participant to experience professional cooking for a public audience, and earning money from the endeavour, whilst being supported by our Café Manager Sofia.
We spoke about the support that EggTooth is providing for two of our participants, under our collaboration agreement and the provision of specialist mental health support developed in partnership with us. This support is coordinated with support from the participants’ Local Authority Caseworkers under the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme, NHS social workers and our Buddy Coordinator. Currently being taken to and from appointments by our Outreach Officer Shaza, this will be soon taken over by one of our incredible local volunteers.
Chelsey – our Buddy Coordinator - updated us all on the number of new Ukrainian participants we are seeing, and when they will be matched with volunteer Buddies to help them settle into the town. She also updated on the participants who we have assisted with specialised ESOL support; young people being given extra tutoring – again by volunteers – to succeed in their GCSE exams; coordinating food bank vouchers to people in destitution; and feeding back on the induction of 10 new volunteers last weekend.
Chelsey and Shaza also reported on the progress of the women’s only Eid party being organised for May, while Hiba – our new Caseworker – is putting participants and volunteers in touch to start discussing a community party for Eid al-Adha in July. Still getting to grips with her new job - only two weeks in - Hiba is already an active member of the community we support and her knowledge and skills will be crucial in the successful navigation of her first piece of casework being taken on this week.
We discussed Refugee Week 2022, the various activities we will be leading on, the amazing response of the local artistic community in St Leonards to our call to action and all of their plans for activities in the galleries in the area. We talked about fundraising activities members of our community are putting on for us; the falling through of an appointment for a wheelchair due to lack of interpreters; our ongoing Stitch for Change project.
Alongside all of this is the daily contact with our participants and volunteers: checking in with young single men to see if they want to come to our events, trying to make sure they are not isolated; checking in with volunteers to make sure they are not feeling overwhelmed or accepting offers from them of even more assistance; purchasing school uniform for children in the Asylum Dispersal system; developing new partnerships and collaborations with local and national organisations; keeping our social media presence updated so we continue to highlight the voices of people seeking refuge in our community; applying for grant funding so we can continue offering these services; and more.
Next week we will sit down together on a Wednesday morning and do it all again. And the week after that. And the week after that. Because whatever the new legislation that comes out of the Home Office, our work on the ground continues.
That’s not to say that we don’t campaign for better treatment of those seeking refuge. As part of the national Solidarity Knows No Borders Network we are committed to the Fair Immigration Reform Movement – FIRM – Charter which lobbies for a better immigration system, one based on dignity, justice, welcome and action. We attend meetings and organise actions as part of this network and are grateful for a space where we can stand alongside people from all over the country who are equally frustrated and angry about the hostile and racist regulations of the new laws, and want to actively campaign to make a change. There can be no real change without structural change, and the necessity of this network has never been clearer than this week.
But it is important to remember that the people we work with are already experience significant hostility and barriers to thriving, and the work we do on the ground continues regardless of new laws.
This is the first in a series of new blogs by staff and volunteers of The Refugee Buddy Project.
We are aiming to have a new one out every other month, so keep your eyes peeled here and on our social media prescense so you don’t miss out.