QARN meetings: next planned meeting dates – by Zoom:
Saturdays on Zoom – 17th October 2026, 9th January 2027, 10thApril 2027,
with our in-person and on-zoom AGM on 10th July 2027
and then Zoom on 9th October 2027.
Continue reading “QARN next meetings”Migrant Voice launches its new report today in parliament as part of our campaign to reduce extortionate visa costs and work for shorter settlement routes. Read the report here.
Starting with a short rally in Parliament Square from 3-4pm, we move to Parliament, Committee Room 6 for an event from 5-7pm, which will see a range of speakers sharing their experience of the visa system and Migrant Voice presenting the findings from our research.
The report, The True cost: the financial, social and mental health impacts of the UK visa and settlement system, shows how the cost of visas puts a strain on the lives of innumerable migrants and their families.
Drawing on survey data and focus groups with migrants on five- and ten-year routes to settlement, the findings indicate that the current system imposes excessive cumulative costs, prolonged insecurity and significant mental health strain.
Participants consistently described the system as structurally unfair. Visa fees were viewed as far exceeding administrative costs; repeated renewals create long-term financial pressure; and migrants remain subject to âNo Recourse to Public Fundsâ (NRPF) despite paying taxes and National Insurance.
Continue reading “The true cost of visas”
21 February 2026: 28 Members and Friends of QARN met online on Saturday 21 February 2026 for a Meeting for Worship for Business to discern how we can take forward to Britain Yearly Meeting our urgent concerns as a Quaker Recognised Body about refugee and asylum matters. We were reminded of the Citation of Friends by the Nobel Peace prize committee which mentioned compassion âfrom the nameless to the namelessâ. We see no compassion in the stance and actions of the government displayed in its current proposals for restructuring the asylum and immigration rules. We were reminded of our testimonies to truth, equality and peace which should underpin all actions.
Continue reading “Minute from a Special Meeting for Worship for Business of Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN)”
This wooden crucifix is made with fragments of migrant boats gathered from nearby beachesÂ
Read our joint statement and see the full list of signatories below:
As organisations supporting and advocating for migrants and refugees, LGBTQI+ people, and survivors of domestic abuse and gender-based violence, we are appalled at the quality of reporting from the BBC in its recent investigation, which has amplified a small number of bad-faith actors offering fraudulent immigration and asylum advice. This reporting risks causing real harm to communities that are already systemically marginalised, and whose lives are being made harder by the rise in racist far-right rhetoric and increasingly harsh anti-migrant policies by successive governments.
Continue reading “We stand united against harmful BBC reporting that targets already marginalised communities”We are called to speak truth to power, and the truth is that separating families fleeing persecution is cruel and wrong.- Adwoa Burnley
Faith leaders from across the UK, including Quakers, have written to the Home Secretary warning against permanently restricting refugee family reunion.
The Christian, Jewish, Muslim and other faith leaders, alongside Adwoa Burnley, clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting, urge Shabana Mahmood to demonstrate “the moral leadership that this moment demands.”
She should champion compassion, such as that shown to Ukrainians in 2022, rather than yield to the loudest calls against it, they say.
Continue reading “Refugee family plans “will deepen suffering””Amidst major asylum policy overhaul, 720 bishops, rabbis, church ministers and an imam from UK communities have written to the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, to raise concerns for refugee families.
“The current proposals â removing the right to family reunion for most refugees, narrowing the legal definition of âfamilyâ, and placing steep new barriers before those fleeing danger â represent a profound departure from values that have long shaped our national life and are deeply embedded in our faith traditions: human dignity, fairness, protection for the vulnerable, and the importance of family life.”
Continue reading “JPIT Support Refugee Family Reunion”Religious leaders, faith groups and charities urge Labour to ensure the proposals are fair and strengthen integration
The full text of the letter and signatories is as follows:
We write with grave concern about the governmentâs proposed changes to settlement and citizenship rules. We urge ministers to slow down and rethink their proposals, which currently contain serious flaws.
Massive changes, to rules that could shape the lives of more than a million people in the UK for the next 20 years or more, should not be made in haste.
Continue reading “The government must rethink its settlement and citizenship reforms”Ginny Baumann of the QARN Steering Group has been coordinating a survey of Local and Area Quaker Meetings so that Quakers can have a better understanding of Quaker work alongside refugees and people seeking asylum.
We thank everyone who responded – the Survey results are here:
