We had our Annual Meeting on 29th April and presented the Annual Report for 2018 and the accounts without receiving a single question!

I had previously indicated that I wished to step down as Chairman but as the trustees hadn’t found a replacement I agreed to carry on for a while.

​Coleen, the Deputy Chair spoke unscheduled, and gave a handsome tribute after which the whole room rose to its feet and gave me a standing ovation – the only time that has happened to me in my life. It’s a bit difficult to know what to do when being clapped so I clapped back – trying to indicate that Friends Without Borders is a group enterprise and any credit should be shared!

There are one or two jobs I would be particularly happy to hand over – first the football, now suspended till 2nd September. Happily a group called Spirit in Sport is coming in for two months then in order to provide coaching every other week – however someone will need to liaise with them, remind the players weekly and go along on the alternate weeks to organise a game when Spirit in Sport is not there. 

The other responsibility I’d love to hand on, probably to one of our existing volunteers, is responsibility for managing the hostel. We did have a volunteer who took this on but she’s now dropped out for personal reasons - and we do have a volunteer who’s currently hostel-hunting – but he’s very reasonably made it plain that while he’s prepared to do that he doesn’t want to take on day-to-day management

​The success story of the last few months has been the English classes very ably run by a Red Cross volunteer (an asylum seeker herself) who has now been joined by three FWB volunteers, two of whom with a background in education. The main English classes are on Thursday but we’d also like to expand the Monday classes if suitable volunteers can be found – we’ve already mentioned that at the Staff Meeting we have every month.

At our last Staff Meeting we had a visit from Will Bergstroem, Police Community Cohesion Officer, and Freida M'Cormack, Portsmouth Counter Extremism Coordinator.

This impressively titled couple had come to tell us about a police initiative against hate crime, defined as perceived abuse on grounds of Race, Religion, Sexuality, Transgender Identity or Disability. They are anxious to gather data about this in order to identify its extent and any “hotspots”.

Reports may be made anonymously and out of police station via a website - our advisers now have the information on their laptops and can help anyone to make a report. 

​Happily we haven’t heard much about hate crime from our clients who are generally speaking thick skinned and down to earth. And they do receive much kindness – two weeks ago we had a visit from a farmer with some yurts to let who told us he’d be happy to have them used by asylum seekers free of charge in off-peak periods.

We don’t know what asylum seekers will think about farm holidays in the wild but have found a volunteer to manage the programme and are starting to advertise. We’ll keep you posted!

​Liberal Democrats for Seekers of Sanctuary publish a rather good newsletter a condensed version of which is published below with thanks to the Lib Dems.

In an era of fake news we need to know the facts. Thanks to Asylum Matters for this précis of the latest figures, January to March 2019. Key asylum figures are below and you can find the data tables here. Some headlines are below, and a lengthier overview is available here.
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Asylum seekers should be given the right to work.  There is now a national coalition of organisations campaigning for this under the banner of LIFT THE BAN. 
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A bit late but there has been the Annual Report and coming in April gives us opportunity to remind you of our Annual Meeting on 29th April, All Saints 19:00. The speaker will be from the wonderful Refugees at Home charity and supper is included – Business – Talk – Supper. The Dean (Anthony Cane) and the Lord Mayor Select (David Fuller) will be among the guests.

The two Bishops of Portsmouth (Anglican and Roman Catholic) visited the dropin together on Thursday 4th April.

They saw what goes on, were introduced to everyone, and worked the room with great enthusiasm, greeting our clients.
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Bishop Philip (the Catholic Bishop) told us that he says a prayer every time he passes All Saints.

Part of our work is the “education of the general public through lectures, presentations and discussions”.

Last year Coleen, Geoff, Michael, Sue and other volunteers helped with more than twelve events to share our work with the general public. 

If you know of an organisation which would be interested in having a speaker or hosting an exhibition, or know of a public figure who would like to visit the drop-in please let us know.

​We like to help – there is no charge though we would appreciate the chance to make an appeal!

​Our twenty fifth year was a good one with a lot of volunteers and a lot of new initiatives. We now have a “hostel” (a caravan) for three homeless men. Stephen Morgan MP is holding monthly surgeries in the dropin for our clients and the new volunteers include a teacher so we have increased the English classes. A small group has been formed to work on a Community Allotment and a client who is a barber brings his clippers every couple of weeks to provide free haircuts. A lot of people are doing what they can to make the bad situation of refugees a bit better.

We’ve also had some generous support from people who can’t come to the Dropin. Two legacies have come in during the year and this has enabled us to raise the amount we give destitute asylum seekers from £15 to £20 a week. We help with other expenses too - such as when people making fresh claims have to travel to Liverpool to do so. This is a particularly mean requirement of the Home Office aimed at “failed” refugees who are not allowed to work, not housed, excluded from the Welfare State and not given any money at all. We give them a straight hundred pounds for Liverpool trips and suggest they sleep on the coach. If they book early they might even get a little change and be able to buy lunch when they get there.
 
It isn’t just legacies which have sustained us, the church has been particularly helpful – the Anglican Bishop nominated us for his Lent Appeal and one or two parishes have made noteworthy donations. Our biggest and most dependable income comes from our monthly donors.

During 2018 we affiliated with more than 80 charities, think tanks, faith groups, businesses and trade unions to launch the ‘Lift the Ban’ campaign calling on the Government to grant the right to work to people seeking asylum. The campaign makes the case that being allowed to work would support people’s integration into new communities, allow them dignity and improve their health and wellbeing. It features new statistics which reveal:

• 94% would like to work;
• 65% were working before they came here;
• 74% had a secondary education while 37% had a degree.

The report also looks at the economic case for lifting the ban and suggests that this could substantially help the Government through increased tax revenues and savings on asylum support payments.

​A perfectly reasonable Home Office requirement for asylum seekers is that they sign on at regular intervals. Asylum Seekers in Portsmouth used to have to sign on at the police station in Portsmouth but that has now been changed to Fareham, 11 miles away. They are occasionally arrested when they sign which makes the day very stressful. Hearing about this one of our supporters, the Vicar of Holy Trinity Fareham, takes herself down to the police station on signing days and hangs about outside, introducing herself and inviting signers to have a coffee nearby. All the signers and all the immigration officers are based in Portsmouth so signing in Fareham is inconvenient for everyone. It is also expensive – we pay bus fares for a number of clients, costing us around £100 a month.
 
Portsmouth Police Station is being rebuilt but apparently it hasn’t yet been decided if the new station will be suitable for signing. One would have thought it could have been included in the architect’s brief.
 
Ongoing projects

• Access to Justice ProjectAccess to Justice continues.
• Journeys Festival (not an FWB project though we worked closely in 2017) continues the refugee-themed Arts Festival
• The Vigil for Refugees will be in Portsmouth this year, at St Thomas’s Cathedral.

 

​During 2018 we have said “goodbye” to Philip Hudson who was a splendid    book-keeper for many years and Helen Burchett who started the “Children’s Corner” and made it a tremendous success. Many thanks to both of them.
 
Helen is stepping back but maintaining her links with the charity which is what I want to do myself - having reached 75 I hope to retire as Chairman but carry on doing some of the hands-on work. It is a good moment, Friends Without Borders is thriving, we have a lot of good new volunteers and some very faithful and generous supporters. It has been a great privilege to be Chairman of such a dynamic group for the last five years. And a great privilege to work with our amazingly cheerful clients.

Wow! It’s anniversary time – 25 years since our charity was first formed as Haslar Visitors Group to visit immigration detainees in Haslar prison. 
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Now the prison’s closed but we’ve got a new job (which the Red Cross has come to join) running a drop-in for the 200 asylum seekers dispersed to Portsmouth while their cases are being sorted out.

Michael Woolley
Chairman

​A small group of volunteers are taking some of our clients to a Community Allotment where they have already painted the shed and planted out some carrots and onions. It is very healthy for people living in dire poverty to have something useful to do. They are, of course, not allowed to work.

​Part of Mrs May’s “hostile environment” is to deprive asylum seekers of a place to live or the right to rent at a certain stage in the application process.

We have a number of clients in this category and have recently carried out a survey to find out how many and how they are sustaining themselves.

It was a small survey but indicates that about 20 are currently homeless - 15 “sofa surfing” and 5 living on the streets. A volunteer is currently preparing a report and proposals as to how we can help them – you will be hearing more!

​A group have been working on this for a while and an official launch by the Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire is planned for Wednesday 19th June at All Saints. More information in due course.

​OWW is from 21st to 28th October with many local churches taking part with a variety of events. We were particularly interested in:

• A World without Borders – a talk and discussion at the Portsmouth Friends’ Meeting House on Tuesday 23rd from 19:00 till 21:00. This is in partnership with Journeys Festival.
• One World Week Celebration at the Discovery Centre, St John’s RC Cathedral on Wednesday 24th from 14:00 to 16:30. Activities, stalls on theme of change. Do think about what you might come and do! Cakes from around the world

​This is from 19th - 28th October and has a good website with full programme details.

​I have been the Chairman for some years now but have told trustees that I propose to retire at the next AGM in Spring 2019.

​I do not propose leaving the charity or giving up all the work I do but I shall be 75 next birthday and feel it’s time for someone else to take the helm.

Thank you to everyone who supported Roger Pask and me during our Vigil for Refugees in Chichester Cathedral. The day was a success, gaining as much, if not a little more, support than two years ago when we last had it there.

The “reflections” (short talks) were rather a success too and we shall be publishing some of them in due course. Many thanks to our volunteer Davey Butler who stood in at short notice when someone dropped out – thank you Davey. 

As reported last time we’ve been able to raise our standard destitution payment from fifteen to twenty pounds a week.

We also pay transport to Fareham for all those who have to “sign on” at the Police Station there (the bus ticket is over £5). They used to sign on at Portsmouth Police Station in Winston Churchill Avenue but the venue was recently changed to Fareham for undisclosed reasons. There are no dispersed asylum seekers in Fareham and the Immigration Officers who supervise the signing are based in Portsmouth so the change in venue seems ill considered from both points of view.

We also pay for people to travel to Liverpool to make fresh claims. I always thought that asylum seekers were made to appear in person so they could be interviewed. I’ve now learnt that very few are interviewed – the requirement to present the papers in person is pure bureaucratic harassment. It costs us about £100 each time in fares as we are the ones who have to pay!

The result of all this spending is that our reserves are gently going down – no bad thing, people give us money to spend on the needy not to keep in the bank. However it’s a situation which has to be watched obviously, your Chairman isn’t worried but he is keeping an eye on things.

​The Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire dropped in to our Drop-in recently.

Lords Lieutenant are the Queen’s local representatives in the different counties and this one was very charming and interested.

​Our supporter Bob Thomas successfully completed his walk from St Columba’s in Fareham to St Columba’s in Pont Street, just behind Harrods. We’re not sure exactly what he raised but it was over £750, perhaps £1,000.

​Well done Bob – thank you!

​The Mosque presented us with a splendid food collection post-Ramadan. Thank you to everyone who contributed and to Sheikh Fazle Abbas for organising it all.

The food was collected and transported by Bob Thomas of St Columba back in harness after his walk. There’s enough to make up food bags for all our clients if the regular suppliers fail us for some reason.

A gentleman who appeared one day with all his kit and spent a morning cutting our clients’ hair. Very unfussy and practical help: thank you!

​“Refugees At Home” is a small charity that arranges altruistic hosting, over a limited period, for destitute asylum-seekers. They write:

"We have hosted for over 80,000 individual person nights and currently host some 150 guests across the UK.
We have recently received a referral for a refused asylum seeker from Sudan who has found himself street homeless while he prepares to submit a fresh claim.
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Unfortunately, all of the prospective hosts we have in the area have now been asked and we have run out of options to pursue. Do you have any links in the area or ideas for who we might approach?”

I have come across Refugee at Home a number of times and been impressed by their efficiency and understanding of the needs of hosts. If anyone is interested could they contact Rachel Davenport: info@refugeesathome.org.

REFUGEE WEEK VIGIL
Chichester Cathedral Lady Chapel
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MONDAY 18TH JUNE
from Matins 07:30 to Evensong 17:30
and including both services.
Largely silent prayer but with hourly “Reflections”
 
DO JOIN US FOR AS SHORT OR AS LONG A TIME AS YOU WISH
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​Our fund raising has been going well recently and we have received a small legacy so we’ve been able to raise our standard destitution payment from £15 to £20 a week. All our clients are offered a food bank voucher when we have them as well.

​This is very good news for our clients, none of whom are allowed to work and many of whom are excluded from the Welfare State as the Windrush people have been. 

​“Iftar” is the fast-breaking meal which Muslims eat after evening prayers during the month of Ramadan.

A supporter offered to provide these once a week during the month for our clients. We have been very happy to agree to this and on Thursday nights a team of mainly Christian volunteers open All Saints where we hold the drop-in, Muslim prayers are said, and the meal is enjoyed by Muslims and Christians alike.

​A nice bit of inter-faith community building.

Our supporter Bob Thomas is as I write walking the first leg of his walk from St Columba’s in Fareham to St Columba’s in London. He is collecting for Friends Without Borders and you may sponsor him on his JustGiving page.                         
I just rang him to see how the first day was going but just got a very tired sounding answerphone message. If he was tired at the start I hate to think how he’s going to be at the end!

This briefing draws on a detailed document by the CORAM Children’s Legal Centre We are grateful to CORAM for all their work on this.

The situation: Leave to Remain Asylum seekers may be given refugee status which lasts for five years. At the end of five years they must apply for “Indefinite leave” meaning permanent residence, but this application is free of charge.

Many others are given Discretionary Leave to Remain which is initially for 30 months and has to be renewed four times at a considerable cost until the applicant has been in the country for ten years, after which they can apply for settlement. This applies to every individual, including children. There seems to be little consistency over decisions on why some applicants are in one category and some in the other.

​How much are the fees?
At the moment (June 2018), each individual must pay £1,533 per person, including a  compulsory health surcharge. This may rise to £2033 if the government carries out its plan to double the health surcharge by the end of 2018.

​The health surcharge must be paid on-line, which is extremely difficult for those without bank accounts. Until 2015 renewal was free, but charges were introduced in April 2015 and have continued to rise steeply every year. The charges are out of all proportion to the Home Office “processing” cost.
 
After applying for renewal every 30 months, at the end of ten years an application for Indefinite Leave to Remain costs (at today’s rate) £2,389 per person.
 
People should save up…
They do, but:

1. it is difficult to get a well paid job if you only have a visa for 30 months;
2. as the fees are per family member a family may have to find £8,000 or more every 30 months;
3. the fees are increasing by between 10% and 30% a year so it’s difficult to keep up.

 
What about Fee Waivers?
There is no fee waiver for Indefinite Leave to Remain or citizenship.
Some people with Discretionary Leave can apply for a fee waiver, but the eligibility threshold is extremely high and if a request for a fee waiver is rejected, you have ten days to pay the fee before your application for extension is rejected; you then lose your status entirely and become undocumented. This means you become unable to work; you have no recourse to public funds (benefits) and the time you have already spent in the UK is not counted towards the ten years’ leave you need in order to apply for settlement.
 
Friends Without Borders is helping applicants with these fees, we paid £1,012 in May and have just received a request for£1,033 in June, this being the balance of a fee after the client has made a large contribution himself. Trustees are still deciding but it currently looks as if they will agree the June application.
 
Is there anything I can do?
Write to your MP – the current charges are arbitrary, excessive and grossly unfair, particularly on young families trying to set themselves up after the upset of leaving their own countries.