OCCASIONAL NEWS FROM FRIENDS WITHOUT BORDERS (PORTSMOUTH)

ANNUAL MEETING CLAP

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!

STAFF NEEDED

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

SUCCESS STORY OF THE YEAR

​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.

HATE CRIME OR NOT

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. 

HAPPY NEWS FROM THE FARM

​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!

Very best wishes,
Michael Woolley, Chairman
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POST SCRIPT ​

​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.

UK ASYLUM STATISTICS

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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• There were 31,589 asylum applications in the UK (main applicants only) in the year ending March 2019, 18% more than the previous year but below the level seen in the year ending March 2016 during the European migration crisis.
• There were 3,223 applications from UASCs (Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children), 31% more than the previous year. UASCs accounted for 10% of total asylum applications in the latest year.
• In the last year, 39% of initial decisions on asylum applications were grants of asylum, humanitarian protection or alternative forms of leave, compared with 30% in the previous year.
• There were 32,309 cases pending initial decision at the end of March 2019, of which 43% (13,994) were more than 6 months old. This is the largest backlog recorded in asylum statistics.
• At the end of March 2019, 45,643 asylum seekers in the UK were in receipt of support under Section 95, up 8% from the same time the previous year.
• In the year ending March 2019, 5,794 people (mainly Syrians) were provided protection under resettlement schemes (a similar number to the previous year). The Vulnerable Person Resettlement Scheme (VPRS) accounted for three-quarters (4,328) of those resettled in the UK in this time.

DETENTION ISSUES

The Detention Forum blog  is worth reading and sharing – and note that, scandalously, 61% of those in detention needn’t have been there at all.  It is time to stop tweaking the system and have a complete overhaul.  They say “The latest immigration statistics - including detention and returns - were released last week. While numbers entering and leaving detention continue to fall overall, there were 1,839 people in detention on 31 March 2019, up from 1,784 on 31 December 2018. In the first quarter of 2019, only 39% people leaving detention were removed or deported, down from 42% in the previous quarter.”

Petition.  A cross party group of Parliamentarians have handed in a  petition to the Home Secretary about the need for a time limit on detention. Sajid Javid really must listen.

The Human Cost.  This report by Detention Action about the human and financial cost of indefinite detention demonstrates the waste of people's lives, not just the amount of taxpayers money wasted. It costs ten times more for a person to be in detention rather than in the community.

Final Report on Cost Savings. A detailed and comprehensive investigation into the financial costs of detention has been done by Liberty, showing its huge cost and the savings if there were a 28 day limit. After taking realistic costs of alternatives to detention into account, at least £25-30m could be saved. To say nothing of the human costs, compensation for wrongful detention is £55-65 million a year.

RIGHT TO WORK

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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MEDITERRANEAN CROSSINGS

As weather conditions improve, the number of departures from the North African coast grows. Over 500 people have already died in 2019 trying to cross the Mediterranean according to the International Organisation for Migration. UNHCR representative, Dominik Bartsch, told the EU “every day that passes is costing the lives of men, women and children. No matter what the parliament and the commission are going to look like, saving the lives of people needs to take priority.”