A lot of people have been in touch over the last week, with unbelievably generous offers of help, housing, volunteering – all asking to know ways they can help refugees from Afghanistan. We are unbelievably grateful, and slightly embarrassed that we’ve yet to hear of any Afghans who’ve arrived in Leeds on the various resettlement schemes.
So we’ve helped to draft this joint reponse from Leeds Migration Partnership https://migrationpartnership.org.uk/afghanistan so the refugee charities of Leeds give out clear and consistent messages. We are told that when people arrive, they will be provided with wrap-around care, and that the UK Government have this in hand.
That said – despite “Operation Warm Welcome” – the UK Government plans to make the welcome for refugees who arrive without invitation less than warm. Including Afghan refugees who are not eligible for this wrap-around care.
You might agree. You might disagree. But we’d like you to know more about it – and how it connects to the situation of folks who aren’t lucky enough to be airlifted out of dangerous situations. You can find more info on this after this briefing sheet.
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Most of the organisations working with refugees in Leeds are working with people who have come to the UK without an invitation. Some of those people are from Afghanistan, but most refugees in Leeds are not eligible for the help offered to people who’ve been hand-picked by the Home Office.

And although the Home Office have asked that all offers of help for Afghan people go through them – it’s actually much better to contact the Council (if you have an empty property that could be used to house people) or Migration Yorkshire – who are coordinating things on a regional level. They have produced an excellent in depth explanation of how people can offer help.

Collecting, storing, cleaning and organising goods is an expensive and time consuming task. Charity shops like St Vincent’s do this brilliantly well, as well as offering support to people seeking asylum as well as refugees. It’s generally cheaper to buy new from Asda/Primark. Plus, from a human perspective – there’s enormous dignity in not being forced to wear second hand undies.

If UK people want to show support for refugees more generally – there’s an opportunity for them to speak out against the UK Government’s New Plan for Immigration.

This New Plan intends to create a two tier system for refugees. One group will arrive at the invitation of the UK Government, selected from particular refugee camps. These are called resettlement schemes.

If the New Plan passes into law, the other group – the people who have not arrived on UK Government chartered planes or at UK invitation – will be said to have arrived here illegally.

So even if people seeking refuge persuade the Home Office that their lives are in danger, and they cannot return home (for example that they are from Afghanistan and are wanted by the Taliban) they will be treated differently. This is not an accident or an oversight. It’s central message of the New Plan. If you arrive in the UK without an invitation, you should expect to be treated differently.

The New Plan says that people who arrive without invitation will only be awarded protection for a maximum of two and half years, and with no right to free health care, social care, or benefits – even if they are too sick or injured to work (what is called No Recourse to Public Funds). LASSN -and many others – are very concerned that if the New Plan passes into law, people who come to the UK seeking refuge will be made destitute, even though they are accepted by Home Office as “genuine” refugees.

You can find out more about how UK Government describe these plans here.

You can find out here why The United Nations High Commision for Refugees have expressed some concerns with them

You can find out more about the opposition to these plans here.

LASSN – alongside many many others – is a signatory to this campaign.

If you feel moved to contact a politician to tell them what you think of the new plans, you can do so easily – here.

Finally – and we saved this til last – organisations like LASSN who help all refugees regardless of where they are from could really use your financial support right now. For example 4 out of 5 of our projects  – do not have sufficient grant-funding to see them through beyond the end of the financial year. If you can spare the money, it will definitely help to keep our projects going, as we await decisions on grant applications.
Thank you again for all the offers of help: financial, practical, and spiritual. With your help, and the hard-work of our amazing volunteers – we’ll continue to show a warm welcome to everyone who finds themselves in Leeds, and try to help them rebuild their lives.

Jon, Director