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Individual Quaker Voices Aiding Efforts For The Refugee Crisis

quaker_home_theme1[Updated 18/9/2015] Article from Gemma Considine: 

The Individual Quaker Voices Aiding Efforts For The Refugee Crisis

By coming together and raising their voices as one, the Quaker community has taken huge steps towards advocating for and changing the lives of the refugee community. However, as well as working hard on a national level, individual Quaker Meeting Houses have been working within their own communities to support and raise the profile of those refugees living in their regions. Continue reading “Individual Quaker Voices Aiding Efforts For The Refugee Crisis”

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Syrian refugees: what you can do to help

UK govGovernment response: Last updated:This week the Prime Minister announced that the UK will resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees during this Parliament. Here’s how you can help.

Since the Syrian crisis began in 2011, the UK has granted asylum or other forms of leave to almost 5,000 Syrian nationals and their dependants. We also operate three resettlement routes, which bring people who have fled their home country to the UK. One of these, the Gateway programme, has run for 10 years and has resettled almost 6,400 people in that time, aiming to resettle around 750 people a year. Continue reading “Syrian refugees: what you can do to help”

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Hungary …

quaker orangeI think that many Friends are watching the failure of humanitarian response to the situation of the refugees here in Hungary.  First, let me say that the failure is on the governmental level.  There has been an incredible outpouring of loving kindness and material support from hundreds — maybe thousands — of people.I was at a training for volunteers this evening and one of the questions that was asked was what can people outside of Hungary do?The answer is that they can lobby their politicians to put pressure on Hungary. I had already suggested that in response to an inquiry from a Belgian Friend.  Those in Brussels can also address the EU.Would you share this message with EMES?  Please write your Parliamentary representatives and ask them to demand that Hungary live up to the humanitarian responsibilities of EU member states. (They need to be demanding that of their own countries as well, but right now the situation in Hungary is dire.) Continue reading “Hungary …”

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Leaveners: ‘Displacement: Stories of Hope and Humanity on our Poets’ Corner

Leaveners

During the month of September on Poets’ Corner, arts charity Leaveners publishes poetry on ‘Displacement: Stories of Hope and Humanity’.
Currently 60 million people worldwide are suffering from displacement (UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, 2015). People fled their homes and countries due to causes of war, conflict and injustice. Through the poetry archive on Displacement, ‘Poets’ Corner’ aims to uncover the stories of compassion, camaraderie, and kindness that swim beneath the surface during these times of great suffering, helplessness and hardship.

Finding hope and humanity through the stories of people who directly experienced or are engaged with displacement seems more necessary than ever. Please download the poems ‘New Boy in Class, 1943’ and ‘A New Day’ and print them to display in your Meeting House or other public place. Read all poetry throughout the month here: https://leavenerspoetscorner.wordpress.com/category/displacement-2/

2015.9 Poem Displacement A New Day

2015.9 Poem Displacement New Boy in Class 1943

 

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Indefinite detention: Not one dissenting voice … apart from James Brokenshire

Right to Remain – Written by 

Yesterday, parliament debated immigration detention.  Specifically, the motion:

‘That this House supports the recommendations of the report of the Joint Inquiry by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees and the All Party Parliamentary Group on Migration, The Use of Immigration Detention in the United Kingdom; has considered the case for reform of immigration detention; and calls on the Government to respond positively to those recommendations.’

These were the recommendations of the first-ever parliamentary inquiry into detention, recommendations that provide a pathway to fundamental change. Continue reading “Indefinite detention: Not one dissenting voice … apart from James Brokenshire”

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How to Save Lives and Protect People: 4 September 2015

HRW

Write to your MEP now:

How to Save Lives and Protect People: 4 September 2015

(Brussels) – The European Union and its 28 member states should act immediately to address the human rights crisis resulting from years of mismanaging migration and asylum, Human Rights Watch said today. With a humanitarian crisis on the Greek islands, a dysfunctional asylum system in Hungary, thousands of new arrivals in need of protection, and many deaths at EU borders, bold steps are needed at an EU summit on September 14, 2015. Continue reading “How to Save Lives and Protect People: 4 September 2015”

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Quakers urgently call for safe paths for refugees

You can ask your Clerk to write to your MPs and MEPs enclosing a note of the Meeting for Sufferings’ statement. 

Friends are encouraged to write, in their own words, to their MP, to express their feelings about this matter.

quaker_home_theme1The MfS statement is copied below.

Quakers urgently call for safe paths for refugees

The representative body of Quakers in Britain, Meeting for Sufferings, has made the following statement in reaction to the unfolding refugee crisis.
“Quakers in Britain urge the UK Government to welcome those desperately seeking a place of safety, in Europe, from the dangers in their own countries. In this urgent situation it cannot be right to harden hearts against people who are struggling and dying on European soil and in the seas around us.
“In Britain we have a tradition of sheltering those in danger, as we did with the Kindertransport, rescuing thousands of children from Nazi-occupied Europe so many years ago, and more recently, when we welcomed refugees from countries including Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Bosnia and Kosova. It is time to open our hearts and communities again. Continue reading “Quakers urgently call for safe paths for refugees”
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Questions and suggestions

qarn logo sm Quakers are very concerned about the current situation, and we are receiving a high number of questions/ideas/concerns. We will respond to these as soon as we can.