Month: July 2023

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Birmingham Schools and Colleges of Sanctuary Newsletter No. 16 July 2023

Uploaded 19 July 2023: Birmingham Schools and Colleges of Sanctuary Newsletter No. 16 July 2023

Once again we have been overwhelmed by the commitment and compassion shown across our schools this term, we have issued new awards to St John Wall Secondary, Corpus Christi Primary, St Bernard’s Primary St Brigid’s Primary, St Mark’s Primary, SECOND awards to Allens Croft Primary and Nelson Mandela Primary, and THIRD awards to St Vincent’s Primary and St Chad’s Primary. In the FE sector, Halesowen College has also received its SECOND award. We have no doubts at all about the vibrant health of our network! We would like here to express our thanks to Mrs Azadeh from St Chad’s and Mrs Tibbets at St Vincent’s, both of whom are retiring this summer and who have supported our Birmingham network from its very beginning back in 2014.

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‘It just rings and rings’: Home Office helpline for asylum seekers rated inadequate

At our recent QARN meeting, it was agreed that we would look more closely at the workings of this so-called charity, which is in effect the extended arm of the Home Office and does not seem to be meeting its charitable aims.

Updated 10 July 2023: Migrant Help: Court of Appeals Decision

We have been concerned since the announcement of the government’s decision to move forward with the offshore processing of asylum seekers to Rwanda last year. We firmly believed this decision is not in keeping with the care and compassion shown by the British people who have opened their homes to those in need of safety. Along with over 150 organisations, we called on the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary to reconsider this policy that would have seen vulnerable people being sent to a country with a poor record on human rights.  

Today, the Court of Appeals has agreed. The Court has ruled it unlawful for people seeking asylum to be sent to Rwanda to have their claims processed. Stating that “there are substantial grounds for believing that there is a real risk that any persons sent to Rwanda will be removed to their home country when, in fact, they have a good claim for asylum”. 

This decision will result in important changes that will impact the displaced people that Migrant Help work hard to support and welcome into the UK. We hope that based on this judgement, going forward the Government will ensure policy-specific conversations are had with sector experts.  

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Climate Justice and Refugees

7 July 2023: Climate Justice Means Migrant Justice

  1. The Intersections of Injustice
  2. Migration and the Climate Crisis
  3. Borders and the Securitisation of the Climate Crisis
  4. The Hostile Environment
  5. Get Involved – Supporting Migrant Justice

The Intersection of Injustice 

The most marginalised communities are on the front line of the climate crisis and often face its worst impacts. Indigenous peoples, small-scale farmers, and communities living in poverty are disproportionately impacted by intersecting multiple global crises. These communities are forcibly displaced & then routinely denied the right to migrate safely. The climate justice movement must centre these communities and foreground their struggles.

Read more: https://climatejustice.uk/resource/climate-justice-means-migrant-justice/

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Rethinking Security

7 July 2023: Rethinking Security: Public Call for Evidence: What is the ASR? This page explains in more detail what the Alternative Security Review is and how it will be undertaken

The Alternative Security Review is a civil society-led review of the UK’s security strategy. By asking people in the UK what matters to them for their security, and by discussing potential solutions to human and ecological security with experts, a cooperative Human Security Strategy will be produced that will offer an alternative to the existential failures of the current ‘national security’ approach.

Rethinking Security have undertaken this project in response to the UK government’s latest security review, the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy, which set out government ‘security’ priorities for the next 10 years. This will see a big boost to military spending at the expense of development and diplomacy, and commits the UK to dangerous great power struggles in both Europe and on the other side of the world.

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Minister Robert Jenrick ordered painting over of child asylum unit murals

7 July 2023: **Disgraceful!** BBC: Minister Robert Jenrick ordered painting over of child asylum unit murals

Murals of Mickey Mouse and other cartoon characters designed to welcome child asylum seekers to a reception centre in Dover have been painted over, by order of the immigration minister.

Robert Jenrick instructed that they be removed, reportedly because he believed they sent too welcoming a message.

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