This is Refugee Week, and today BHT is hosting an event at our head office in London Road, Brighton. There are representatives from a wide range of organisations including the City Council, Amnesty International, interpreting services, and refugee support groups.
BHT ‘s own services are there, too, including Support4Housing and Threshold (both services offer support to refugees, in the case of Threshold, women refugees and their children).
BHT’s main service working with refugees is the Immigration Legal Service, based at Community Base in Queen’s Road, Brighton. Until today I wasn’t aware of some aspects of their work, such as 41% of the asylum clients whose cases we took on last year were children. Most of these children will have come to the UK alone seeking refuge. Many have spent months on dangerous journeys to get here, and some have been looking after younger siblings while doing so.
There are many reasons why these children have come to the UK. They may have seen their families killed and their homes burnt down. They may have been trafficked to be exploited by adults, sexually or in other ways. They may be fleeing forcible conscription, female genital mutilation or forced marriages.
Others may be at risk of violence or imprisonment because of their ethnicity, their religion or simply because of who their families are.
On average, 43% of our work at the Immigration Legal Service is asylum related. Last year (2009) we took on 306 new asylum cases. Of the asylum clients whose cases were ‘closed’ (ie. concluded), 33% were granted refugee status, 52% were allowed to stay in the UK on some other basis (for example, humanitarian grounds), and just 15% had their claims refused.
With most of BHT’s work, the consequences of us not providing a service could lead to homelessness, hardship, even destitution. The work undertaken by the Immigration Legal Service has more serious consequences. If this service wasn’t here, those who might be returned to their ‘place of origin’ might be faced with even worse consequences, including death.
For all involved in Refugee Week, my personal thanks, especially to BHT’s staff in the quite exceptional Immigration Legal Service.
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I just wanted to add my thanks to all those involved in Refugee Week and to BHT for all the hard work. I am proud to live in a city with such a vibrant and busy local refugee sector.