If you need a paper copy of any of this information, please email info@qarn.org.uk listing the information you require

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Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network welcomes measures to restore asylum rights

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QARN AGM and Quarterly Meeting 6 July 2024:

This was a blended Meeting, some people in person at Bradford on Avon Quaker Meeting House, and some on Zoom.

We agreed the following Minutes:

Minute 2024/07/01:  We accept the Annual Report prepared by the QARN Steering Group

Minute 2024/07/02: We accept the accounts as presented. We record our thanks to * who has independently examined them for us.

Minute 2024/07/03: Our clerk will send our Annual Report and Treasurer’s report to Lyndsay Burtonshaw, our link to BYM, as required of a Quaker Recognised Body.

Minute 2024/07/04: We appoint Marian McNichol, Catherine Margham and Fred Ashmore to serve on the Core Group of the Steering Group until the end of December 2027. This will be Fred Ashmore’s first term and for Catherine and Marian it is their second term.

We also agreed that we will create a formal QARN link to the work of Quaker Truth and Integrity Group – QTIG, and that Barbara Forbes and Catherine Margham will take this forward as appropriate.

Our annual report is here:

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QARN AGM and Quarterly Meeting 8 July 2023:

This was a blended Meeting, some in person and some on Zoom. We agreed the following Minutes:

Minute 2022/07/01:  We accept the Annual Report prepared by the QARN Steering Group

Minute 2023/07/02: We accept the accounts as presented. We record our thanks to Wendy Burnett who has independently examined them for us.

Minute 2023/07/03: Our clerk will send our Annual Report and Treasurer’s report to Lindsay Burtonshaw, our link to BYM, as required of a Quaker Recognised Body.

Minute 2023/07/04: We agree to change the date of our Annual Report and Financial Report to March 31^st of each year.

Minute 2023/07/05: We agree to expand the Steering Group’s core group to five members. We will bring two names to the October Meeting. We thank Libby Ruffle for her previous welcome contribution to the Steering Group.

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Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network – QARN gives thanks for the life of Jane Mace, member of the Steering Group 2020-2021.  [January 2023]

Jane first made contact with QARN in January 2019 and we were so encouraged by her enthusiasm for our work that we asked her to join the Steering Group when a vacancy arose for the beginning of 2020.  She responded: “I feel I have some energy to spare and a good deal of interest in QARN’s concerns” and ended, “ps for info: my main other Quaker service at the moment being MfS rep, member of local and AM nominations committees and of YM elders’ team.  Recently laid down being course tutor for Woodbrooke clerks’ courses”. 

This busy woman clearly felt deeply touched by QARN concerns, and throughout her time on the Steering Group Jane thought deeply about what she could offer as service. She was always willing to get involved, to take on a role as needed, we very much benefitted from her literacy skills and eye for detail, her enthusiasm and words of encouragement, and her ability to turn ideas into action.

She was unnecessarily apologetic when she did not live up to her own high standards of engagement – she wrote: “My apologies both for only now replying and being prevented anyway. My mind has been very full for some weeks with AM and YM agendas and I have not felt able to find the energy for helping with this very important work..  I can only uphold from a distance, which I do with appreciation and loving Friendship”.

Jane felt called in many directions, and to her credit she made the decision that her priorities lay in places other than QARN, and she laid down her Steering Group role in October 2021. Nevertheless, she kept in touch and attended QARN events.

We are thankful for Jane’s time with us in the Steering Group, her energy, enthusiasm and commitment, willingness to get involved, her resourcefulness and generous words of encouragement.

Jane loved life as we could see by her emails in which she spoke of seeing swans on the canal, cornet practice, making bread, she sent a photo of her cross-stitch dragonfly [you can see this on our website https://qarn.org.uk which she made to accompany the butterfly embroidery ‘migration is beautiful’ created by QARN’s Rosemary Crawley, as a companion to ‘the butterflies in their brave journeys’. In August 2022 Jane wrote that she had been inspired by the poetry of Loraine Mponela who had joined us for one of our QARN events, and she was about to embark on a 4-day poetry course herself.

Jane wrote: “I like the word ‘glad’.  Years ago I got a calligraphy friend to word me a saying that came to me as a peace prayer ‘Give thanks for glad moments’.  A kind of gratitude practice I suppose.”  She wrote about Quakers ‘Despite ourselves, we are committed to being open to new learning’. She was ever open, and always giving.

We are glad for the life of Jane Mace.

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Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network Annual Report for the AGM on 16 July 2022

Despite the severe harshening of the governments hostile environment and the repressive legislation that has been pushed through, the UK-wide Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN) has continued to witness our concern about the structural violence practised in our name and our determination to bring about migration justice.  We support whole heartedly the recent decision of Quakers to undertake financial and other reparations for the part Quakers played in the colonial era and

All our quarterly meetings in the period have been held on Zoom; but shared information as before has remained plentiful with these and through the network’s email system.  Steering Group members have been in regular communication to manage business and our zoom meetings have each had between 25 and 30 participants in October 2021, January, March and June 2022.

We report with deep sorrow the unexpected and untimely death in of our excellent and loved Treasurer, Rosemary Crawley in January 2022.   Lichfield Meeting placed a short obituary of Rosemary in the Guardian’s Other Lives section and Lichfield Friends are  working on a testimony to the Grace of God in Rosemary’s life.  A short appreciation of Rosemary’s abundant life is on our website.

David Forbes has accepted appointment as our new Treasurer.

Among our members, many connect with other groups (Quaker and non-Quaker) across a wide spectrum of asylum- and refugee-related activities and advocacy.  Briefings and reports from these are published regularly through our website – https://qarn.org.uk

Membership: QARN membership is on an individual basis rather than as Meeting representatives, with Friends simply joining the ‘riseup’ email list by emailing info@qarn.org.uk.  At the time of writing we have 155 members.

The Steering Group consists of four nominated core members, plus members in ex-officio positions. Our current core members are: Catherine Margham (until end..) and Marian MacNichol (until end )

We have a number of ex-officio Steering Group members: the Treasurer, the website and network membership moderator: currently Sheila Mosley, and also those acting as a link and/or representing QARN on bodies as agreed by the Group.

Steering Group members currently represent QARN on these bodies:

            Link to Woodbrooke: Catherine Henderson[FA1] [SM2] 

Quaker Council for European Affairs  – QCEA: Catherine Henderson

Detention Forum: Fred Ashmore/Libby Ruffle

            Churches Refugee Network: Barbara Forbes

            Rethinking Security:  Bridget Walker and David Forbes

            Immigration Law Practitioners Association  – ILPA:  David Forbes

            Status Now 4 All Network: Sheila Mosley: This network of organisations is signed up to the campaign which began in March 2020, for everyone living with precarious status to be granted Indefinite Leave to Remain[SM3] 

Migrant Voices Fees Campaign – Barbara Forbes and David Forbes.

No to Hassockfield: Fred Ashmore

Activities

The network is connected with multiple protests and campaigns.  This year, there has been much to concern us including major legislation to limit the right to protest and to victimise Travellers and Migrants (Police Crime Courts and Sentencing Act enacted in April 2022). 

The Nationalities and Borders Act was passed in April this year and has brought into UK Law a derogation from the Refugee Convention 1952 which the UK signed by establishing the obnoxious idea of criminalising people seeking asylum if they use other than approved means to arrive in the UK.  It also empowered the government to deport asylum speakers to Rwanda, an idea which has elicited a storm of protest.

We pray that challenges to this bill will be successful. 

We have agreed to engage in the No to Hassockfield campaign focussed on the new Immigration Removal Centre near Durham.  IT is likely that we will also support the group resisting another new detention centre at Linton-on-Ous near York.

In May, QARN organised a Faith in Action meeting during Yearly Meeting: Unmasking and unmaking the hostile environment – let us see what love can do[SM4] 

We have reminded ourselves that a specific Quakerly purpose is to amplify the voices of those with lived experience.  Our recent Woodbrooke event in June 2022, ‘Changing the Conversation on Asylum in the UK’ was led by people who have experience of the system[SM5] , whose powerful witness impressed all who took part.

During the past year we have joined with others and signed the following (for which a note is kept on the website here: https://qarn.org.uk/category/campaigning-letters-we-have-signed/

• Sign the Pledge to Fight the Anti-Refugee Laws
• Open letter to the Prime Minister and Home Secretary about plans to send people seeking asylum to Rwanda
• Quakers join more than 1,000 faith representatives ‘horrified’ by refugee bill
• Remove Clause 9 of Nationality & Borders Bill
• ‘We also want to be safe’ – Sign our open letter[SM6] 

Finance:

The accounts have been examined, and on 31 December 2021 we had a balance of  £3460.97

Our examined accounts for the year ending 31 December 2022 are attached to this report.

Any donations made to QARN are used for our core funding (such as production of leaflets and the website, putting together the Conference and so on). We are not in immediate need of financial support and will try and help those wanting to give money directly to refugee work to find a local group or suggest City of Sanctuary as an example of a national organisation involved with this work.

Owing to generous donations from our supporters, QARN currently holds reserves which exceed identified needs and reasonable prudent reserves.  We intend to discern ways to use this money in accordance with our general objectives.

In our Quaker community

As a Quaker recognised body, our work links with that of BYM, QUNO and QCEA. 

Our Leaflets these are available to download and print, or order from our website: https://qarn.org.uk/qarn-leaflets-download-them-here/

• About QARN
• Immigration Detention
• Language matters: challenging the language of asylum and migration
• Britain’s Hostile Environment
• Removals and Deportations
• Excessive fees

On behalf of QARN Steering Group, 16 July 2022

Our next planned meeting dates: Saturdays: 16 July 2022 (AGM) 15 October 2021, 17 December 2022 and 14 January 2023: on Zoom, 11am-4pm.  email:  info@qarn.org.uk for the Zoom link

Financial report available on request: info@qarn.org.uk

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QARN Quarterly Meeting 23 April 2022

Minute QARN 2022/04/01: We welcome Catherine Margham to join the Steering Group as a Core Group member, immediately until the end of 2024.

Minute QARN 2022/04/02: We have decided not to renew our Membership of Church & Peace as we feel that our energies and finances could be more usefully placed elsewhere. One of our members is an individual member of Church & Peace and so we will continue to receive updates.

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QARN Quarterly Meeting 22 January 2022:

We were mindful of Rosemary Crawley’s presence in the work of QARN. We were sad and shaken to hear that Rosemary died on 17 January 2022. 

Rosemary first joined QARN at our Woodbrooke Conference in February 2015, and was added to the QARN eGroup in March 2015 at the request of her Friend Anthony Wilson from Lichfield Meeting. 

Rosemary has been a very grounded, pragmatic, supportive and compassionate steady hand within QARN and the Steering Group in relation to the concerns we grapple with and how we go about our work; and also within the roles to which she was appointed. 

She will have been known to many as our Treasurer from January 2018; was our QARN representative from 2019 on the Social Justice Committee – which has now been laid down; and then from January 2022 she became a member of the QARN Steering Group as a core member.

She has grown up acutely aware of the impact that racial injustice plays in the work of QARN from her own experience.

We know that she has been very supportive of people who are experiencing the rigours of the hostile asylum system, and they will miss her deeply too.

She ends her memoir, Talking about Skin and writing as Rosa L Carter: ‘Despite the mistakes I have made along the way, the misjudgements and self-deceptions, I remain a whole and happy black woman, grateful to have lived through it all and hopeful of still having something positive and helpful to say.’

We gave thanks for the life of Rosemary Crawley and held her in the Light.

David Forbes recalled working together with Rosemary at QCEA and exploring the words of William Penn  – in particular, “no cross, no crown.” Rosemary had a serene presence which radiated even when she was not in full health, perhaps from wrestling with difficulties and coming through to the other side.

Anthony Wilson said he had been too shaken to prepare words which do justification to the person Rosemary was. When he meets people in the street or over the phone he finds himself unable to speak in any normal way – his shock and sadness breaks through.

 The words which came to him at the meeting were those of loving our neighbours as ourselves. We spend more time on questions of how to love our neighbours rather than our selves. But Rosemary had an awareness of herself as a brown baby, never knowing her GI father, discovering what it means to be black, and her acute illness after the breakdown of her second marriage when she expected to die on the operating table. This emotional shattering brought her extraordinary personality to life. She retained a whole and happy life as a black woman in this awareness of and triumph in herself.

All of us who met her found this so inspiring, in the Lichfield meeting and in her family. This positive strong self-awareness is what she brought to QARN and she applied it to everyone she came into contact with whatever the context may have been. We are shaken to our cores by her death, which we should have been ready to accept but couldn’t.

Her witness and her life will be with us for as long as we are able to share it.

Minute: QARN 2022/01/02
We give thanks for the life of Rosemary Crawley and we send our condolences to her family

Anthony Wilson reported that Rosemary’s funeral will be in the village church where she rang the bells. The church service will be after the manner of Friends. Lichfield Meeting and their Area Meeting hope to arrange a memorial, and Friends are liasing with Rosemary’s family.

Anthony will pass on the condolences of QARN to Rosemary’s family.

We thank Anthony for sharing news with us.

Signatories to the bank account:

MINUTE QARN 2022/01/01: We agree that the following people will be signatories to the QARN Reliance Bank account going forward: David Forbes who is our incoming Treasurer, and we reaffirm that Fred Ashmore and Sheila Mosley will continue as signatories.

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QARN Quarterly Meeting 16 October 2021:

Minute 2021/05:  It is agreed that Marian McNichol and Rosemary Crawley will join the Steering Group as core members from January 2022 to the end of December 2024.
We thank Catherine Henderson and Jane Mace for their service.  Catherine will continue as a member of the Steering Group as she represents QARN elsewhere.

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Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network AGM 24 July 2021

Minute 2021/02:  We accept the Annual Report, and ask Jane Mace to update the paragraph regarding the event on 5 June 2021, which pre-dates this meeting.

Minute 2021/03: We accept the accounts as presented. We record our thanks to Wendy Burnett who has independently examined them for us.

Minute 2021/04: We thank Rosemary Crawley for her period of service as Treasurer, and welcome David Forbes who will serve from the beginning of 2022 to the end of 2024.

QARN Annual Report for the AGM on 24 July 2021

Fifteen years old this year, the UK-wide Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN) has continued to witness our concern as to the structural violence practised in our name and our determination to bring about migration justice.

With restrictions of movement during the pandemic, all our quarterly meetings in the period have been restricted to virtual means; but shared information as before has remained plentiful with these and through the network’s email system.  Steering Group members have been in regular communication to manage business and our zoom meetings have each had between 25 and 30 participants in October 2020, January and March 2021

Among our members, many connect with other groups (Quaker and non-Quaker) across a wide spectrum of asylum- and refugee-related activities and advocacy.  Briefings and reports from these are published regularly through our website – https://qarn.org.uk

 Membership: QARN membership is on an individual basis rather than as Meeting representatives, with Friends simply joining the ‘riseup’ email list by emailing info@qarn.org.uk.  At the time of writing we have 145 members.

The Steering Group consists of four nominated core members, plus two members in ex-officio positions. Our current core members are: Catherine Henderson (to end of 2021) David Forbes and Jane Mace (both to end of 2022).  In January, with the help of new role descriptions (for steering group member and treasurer) we welcomed Libby Ruffle as the newest member of the Group (to end 2023).

At this year’s AGM we expect to bring the name of David Forbes to succeed Rosemary Crawley as our Treasurer.

We have a number of ex-officio Steering Group members: the Treasurer, the website and network membership moderator: currently Sheila Mosley, and also those acting as a link and/or representing QARN on bodies as agreed by the Group.

Steering Group members currently represent QARN on these bodies:

• Quaker Social Justice Committee:  Rosemary Crawley (to end of 2022).
• Link to Woodbrooke: Catherine Henderson
• Quaker Council for European Affairs  – QCEA: Catherine Henderson
• Detention Forum: Fred Ashmore/Libby Ruffle
• Churches Refugee Network: Barbara Forbes
• Church and Peace: David Forbes
• Rethinking Security:  Bridget Walker
• Immigration Law Practitioners Association  – ILPA:  David Forbes
• Status Now 4 All Network: Sheila Mosley
• Migrant Voices Fees Campaign – Barbara Forbes and David Forbes.

Activities

 With the pandemic, the inhumane conditions facing those seeking asylum seekers and the  massive backlog of cases awaiting decision on status, there has been much work to consider, leading our Steering Group to allocate extra time in March to discern our priorities – much helped by contributions from Grace da Costa, BYM’s Public Affairs and Advocacy Manager.

In March 28 people attended an online course hosted by Woodbrooke with tutors from QCEA, QPSW and QARN, ‘Understanding the Roots of the UK’s immigration system and how to dismantle it.

In May, the Home Office’s ‘consultation’ on the government’s proposed ‘New Plan for Immigration’ engaged many QARN members in wording effective outrage and our Steering Group in sharing guidance on uses of the questionnaire. We worked with Grace da Costa in relation to the Quakers in Britain submission to this.

On 5 June, together with Woodbrooke. we held a one-day zoom event on ‘Solidarity in a hostile environment: what can we do?’, with contributions from those with firsthand experience of the asylum system, including music and poetry.  

The network is connected with multiple protests and campaigns.  We have reminded ourselves that a specific Quakerly purpose is to amplify the voices of those with lived experience, recalling the words from our 2019 conference that “where words fail, the arts speak to us”.)

During the past year we have joined with others and signed the following (for which a note is kept on the website here: https://qarn.org.uk/category/campaigning-letters-we-have-signed/

• Together With Refugees campaign: ‘We are calling for a kinder, fairer and more effective approach to supporting refugees in the UK. Be part of a shared movement for change’. Read more here: https://togetherwithrefugees.org.uk/
• this letter from Women for Refugee Women: New Plan will harm women:
• this letter from Refugee Action: Concerns about New Plan for Immigration consultation process
• this petition to stop plans for Yarls Wood expansion

https://www.change.org/p/uk-home-office-stop-plans-to-house-asylum-seekers-in-yarl-s-wood-camp

• this statement: Quaker Statement on Migration
• letters from AVID: 60+ organisations join our call to close the barracks and engage with civil society

Finance:

The accounts have been examined, and on 31 December 2000 we had a balance of  £3460.97.

Any donations made to QARN are used for our core funding (such as production of leaflets and the website, putting together the Conference and so on). We are not in immediate need of financial support and will try and help those wanting to give money directly to refugee work to find a local group or suggest City of Sanctuary as an example of a national organisation involved with this work.

In our Quaker community

We have valued our connection with the Sanctuary Everywhere programme coordinator Tatiana Garavito, whose service we will miss after the end of her contract this year.  We look forward to discerning our way forward to share mutual sustenance with Sanctuary Meetings.

As a Quaker recognised body, our work links with that of BYM, QUNO and QCEA.  This year we took inspiration from the December 2020 Quaker Statement on Migration developed jointly with American Friends Service Committee and Friends Committee for National Legislation.

Leaflets: these have remained available to download and print, or order from our website: https://qarn.org.uk/qarn-leaflets-download-them-here/

• About QARN
• Immigration Detention
• Language matters: challenging the language of asylum and migration
• Britain’s Hostile Environment
• Removals and Deportations
• Excessive fees

On behalf of QARN Steering Group, 20 June 2021

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QARN Meeting 27 March 2021:

We agreed the following minute which we will send to Meeting for Sufferings and include on the website. We encourage Ffriends to pass it on to their meetings.

Minute 2021/01: QARN recognizes the significant value of the Sanctuary Everywhere programme, and we wish to express our own appreciation for the work that Tatiana has put into opening our hearts and minds. We urge Quaker bodies to continue nurturing the seeds of this work, and so help us better address privilege and racism, as these give rise to the appalling policies and practices being used against people seeking asylum, refugees, and others who do not have settled status.

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QARN Annual Report for the AGM on 18 July 2020, covering the period since our last AGM in July 2019.

The Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN) is a network of Quakers across the UK who share a concern about the injustices that are practised in our name, and a determination to bring about change for those who have been forced to seek asylum and to reach out with support for those who share our concern. QARN members share information through the email group, and those who can have met together about four times a year in different parts of the country, however since March 2020 we have been in lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic and so have used online Zoom for meetings.

Our members are active as individuals and as members of other groups (Quaker and non-Quaker) across a wide spectrum of asylum and refugee-related activities, giving us a broad and solid base of knowledge and expertise. We continue to be morally outraged at some of the decisions that are made by the Government and its agents in our name.

 Since our last AGM on 6 July 2019, the Steering Group members have been in regular communication to manage business and keep the work alive, but decided to forego a meeting in October 2019 due to many people being pre-occupied with other matters including impending Brexit decisions. We held open meetings on 25 January 2020 in London, and 18 April 2020 on Zoom.

Membership: QARN membership is free, and on an individual basis rather than as Meeting representatives. Friends are welcome to join the ‘riseup’ email list.by emailing info@qarn.org.uk.  Currently we have 122 members.

The Steering Group: Barbara Forbes and Bridget Walker ended their terms of office as core group members of the Steering Group at the end of 2019 and we thank them for their work. Both continue as QARN reps on other bodies.

The Steering Group currently consists of nominated members: Catherine Henderson (to end of 2021*), and newly-appointed David Forbes and Jane Mace (both to end of 2022); they are joined by Rosemary Crawley – Treasurer, to end of 2020). Rosemary Crawley is our QARN rep on the Quaker Social Justice Committee (to end of 2022).

The Steering Group has a number of ex-officio posts, currently filled by Sheila Mosley (web-site, and network membership moderator), Fred Ashmore (QARN representative on Detention Forum), Catherine Henderson and Barbara Forbes (QARN reps on Churches Refugee Network), David Forbes (QARN rep on Church & Peace), and Bridget Walker ( QARN rep on Rethinking Security). David Forbes is also QARN contact with ILPA, and Sheila Mosley is QARN rep on Status Now Network.

There has been a lot happening over the last year, and QARN continues to be active.  We thank all those who have been working on our behalf, and those supporting our work.

We find that two nominated people out of the core group of three Steering Group members now leave at the same time, which means that we potentially lose a lot of continuity and experience. We want to find a solution at this 2020 AGM, perhaps by increasing the number of core group members.

Finance: see the separate report of our Treasurer.  The accounts have been examined, and we had a balance of £2794.27 at December 2019.  We thank Quakers and Meetings for their continuing generosity. Any donations made to QARN are used for our core funding, such as transport costs to enable members to attend meetings, production of leaflets and the website, putting together the Conference and so on. We are not in immediate need of financial support, and will try and help those wanting to give money directly to refugee work to find a local group, or suggest City of Sanctuary as an example of a national organisation involved with this work.

Within Quakers:

QARN is a Quaker recognised body (QRB).

We have a place on the Quaker Social Justice Committee (Rosemary Crawley to end of 2022). This Committee has oversight of the Sanctuary Everywhere programme.

QARN working with BYM, QPSW, QUNO, QCEA and Woodbrooke

We were involved with others in putting on the ‘Envisioning a world that is open to all: let us see what Love can do’ Conference at Woodbrooke 28-30 September 2019. People who have experience of being in the asylum system enhanced our Conference with their thoughts, and music and poetry for which we have been very thankful. Where words fail, the arts speak to us.

You will find the Epistle from the Conference here: https://qarn.org.uk/epistle-from-envisioning-a-world-that-is-open-to-all-let-us-see-what-love-can-doi-conference-at-woodbrooke-birmingham-uk-27-29-september-2019/

A graphic display of ideas and thoughts around this conference is on the website and available for download. A smaller taster version is above:

Quaker Peace and Social Witness – QPSW:  We have continued to liaise with the Sanctuary Everywhere programme and its co-ordinator Tatiana Garavito, until she amongst other staff was furloughed due to the pandemic lockdown. We share common ground with the Sanctuary Meeting network, and Tatiana is a member of QARN, but QARN and the Sanctuary Programme are following their own paths which distinguish us from each other.  We hope that the Sanctuary Programme will be able to support Meetings into the future to be active in relation to their concern for those seeking asylum, refugees and the nature of our racist system that so discriminates against these people.

We have also had fruitful contact with other QPSW staff at Friends House, with Suzanne Ismail – Head of Networking & Engagement, and Grace Da Costa – Public Affairs & Advocacy Manager. We also appreciate Paul Parker, Recording Clerk being responsive to our concerns.

 QARN Outreach

We sent a supportive letter to Alf Dubs who continues to campaign in Parliament for the rights of children in refugee camps in Europe to be brought to UK, and to join family members here.

City of Sanctuary and other involvement: Several of our members are active in an individual capacity with their local City of Sanctuary groups and in other ways, and they have regularly reported on developments in this network.

Representation on other bodies: see the list under ‘Steering Group’. We seek to bring a Quakerly and enabling hand to the campaigns which address our concerns, and this feeds our knowledge base also. Two campaigns of note with which we have been heavily involved are for a clause in the Immigration Bill for a 28 day maximum time limit on immigration detention (currently it is indefinite); and for all undocumented migrants to be given Leave to Remain on the basis that this would enable  health and safety for all.

Speakers: We continue to offer a speaker for Quaker Meetings and have participated in discussions for example with Gloucester Area Meeting about the excessive fees campaign (see website).

Refugee Week: QARN members were busy during Refugee Week in June 2020 despite lockdown.

Current focus:

Excessive fees: During this last year we have made time to campaign on the issue of the excessive fees that people who have been in the asylum system are charged in order to maintain their legal status here, and to apply for British Citizenship.  Figures demonstrate that these people are funding the work of the Home Office far in excess of the costs involved by their applications and at great cost to themselves in many ways, which is outrageous, and needs to change. We have produced a leaflet which has been distributed widely online.

 Leaflets: QARN now has six leaflets that reflect our on-going concerns which are available for people to download and print, or order from our website: https://qarn.org.uk/qarn-leaflets-download-them-here/

• About QARN
• Immigration Detention
• Language matters: challenging the language of asylum and migration
• Britain’s Hostile Environment
• Removals and Deportations
• Excessive fees

 The Website and the Facebook page are updated as appropriate.

On behalf of QARN Steering Group, 5 July 2020

…….

QARN Annual Report for the AGM July 2019, covering the period since our last AGM in July 2018.

The Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN) is a network of Quakers across the UK who share a concern about the injustices that are practised in our name, and a determination to bring about change for those who have been forced to seek asylum and to reach out with support for those who share our concern. QARN members hold discussions and share information through the email group, and those who can meet together about four times a year in different parts of the country.

Our members are active as individuals and as members of other groups (Quaker and non-Quaker) across a wide spectrum of asylum and refugee-related activities, giving us a broad and solid base of knowledge and expertise. We continue to be morally outraged at some of the decisions that are made by the Government and its agents in our name.

Since our last AGM on 14 July 2018, the network has met in October 2018 in Birmingham, January 2019 in London, and April 2019 in Hertford. The Steering Group has held further meetings in between these dates. Every meeting begins with a report from those attending on the many and varied activities taking place across the country.

There has been a lot happening over the last year, and QARN continues to be active.  We thank all those who have been working on our behalf, and those supporting our work.

The Steering Group currently consists of Barbara Forbes (to end of 2019*), Catherine Henderson (to end of 2021*) and Bridget Walker (to end of 2019). Rosemary Crawley (Treasurer), Sheila Mosley (web-site, and network membership moderator), Fred Ashmore (QARN representative on Detention Forum) and Rhona French (QARN representative with Asylum Matters) are ex officio members of the Steering Group.

QARN working with BYM, QPSW, QCEA and Woodbrooke

QARN held a workshop at Yearly Meeting in May 2019.

We keep in contact with our Parliamentary Engagement Officer Jessica Metheringham, particularly in relation to the Immigration Bill,  in relation to which we continue to be outraged about the indefinite nature of immigration detention, however we are advised that this Bill a narrow remit concerning EU citizens in the light of the potential for UK to leave the European Union. We do however keep in touch with campaigning for legislation that will limit this to a maximum of 28 days, and to understand more about alternatives to detention.

QARN is a Quaker recognised body (QRB).

Quaker Peace and Social Witness – QPSW:  We have continued to liaise with the Sanctuary Everywhere programme and its co-ordinator Tatiana Garavito in relation to the activity and progress of the programme, and in discussion about its future as the current stream of legacy funding ends at the close of 2019. Further information about this work is available here: https://www.qarn.org.uk/homepage/sanctuary-appeal-2020/

We share common ground and Tatiana is a member of QARN, but QARN and the Sanctuary Programme are following their own particular paths which distinguish us from each other. QARN does not currently have representation on the Social Justice Committee which determines the direction of the Sanctuary Programme.

We hope that the Sanctuary Programme will be able to support Meetings into the future to be active in relation to their concern for those seeking asylum, refugees and the nature of our racist system that so discriminates against these people.

QARN is working with Quaker Council for European Affairs – QCEA, Woodbrooke, QUNO and QPSW – Sanctuary Programme in preparing for the Conference ‘Envisioning a World that is open to All’ to be held at Woodbrooke on 27-29 September 2019.QARN Outreach

City of Sanctuary: Several of our members are active in their local City of Sanctuary groups and have regularly reported on developments in this network.

Q-CAT: One of our members is a Trustee of the Quaker Concern for the Abolition of Torture and we continue to look for points at which our concerns overlap.

Representation on other bodies: We are represented on the Detention Forum by Fred Ashmore; Rhona French on Asylum Matters which is hosted by City of Sanctuary; Barbara Forbes and Catherine Henderson who are our link to Churches Refugee Network.

Web-based memberships: We agreed last year that Sheila will join Free Movement and David will join Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association – ILPA. Sheila has yet to action this point

Speakers: We continue to offer a speaker for Quaker Meetings, and have facilitated discussions for example at Ealing and Watford Meetings.

Refugee Week: QARN members were busy during Refugee Week in June 2019.

Current focus: We continue to hold a number of concerns as priorities in our work, and have added ‘Removals and Deportations’ to the list as this has clearly been a concern following the activism and then criminalisation of the Standsted15, and sent a message of support to End Deportation which is taking this forward: https://www.qarn.org.uk/homepage/stanstead-15/

QARN now has five leaflets that reflect our on-going concerns which are available for people to download and print from our website: https://www.qarn.org.uk/homepage/new-qarn-leaflets/

• About QARN
• Immigration Detention
• Language matters: challenging the language of asylum and migration
• Britain’s Hostile Environment
• Removals and Deportations

Website / Facebook / E-mail network

The Website and the Facebook page are updated as appropriate. QARN, through the Riseup eGroup continues with 110 members.

Finance

We thank Quakers and Meetings for their continuing generosity. Any donations made to QARN are used for our core funding, such as transport costs to enable members to attend meetings, production of flyers and the website, putting together the Conference and so on. We are not in immediate need of financial support, and will try and help those wanting to give money directly to refugee work to find a local group, or suggest City of Sanctuary as an example of a national organisation involved with this work.

On behalf of QARN Steering Group, 5 July 2019

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QARN Annual Report for the AGM July 2018, covering the period since our last AGM in July 2017.

The Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN) is a network of Quakers across the UK who share a concern about the injustices that are practised in our name, and a determination to bring about change for those who have been forced to seek asylum and to reach out with support for those who share our concern. QARN members hold discussions and share information through the email group, and those who can meet together about four times a year in different parts of the country.

Our members are active as individuals and as members of other groups (Quaker and non-Quaker) across a wide spectrum of asylum-related activities, giving us a broad and solid base of knowledge and expertise. We continue to be morally outraged at some of the decisions that are made by the Government and its agents in our name.

Since our last AGM on 24 June 2017, the network has met in October 2017 in Birmingham, January 2018 in London, and April 2018 in Birmingham. The Steering Group has held further meetings in between these dates. Every meeting begins with a report from those attending on the many and varied activities taking place across the country.

There has been a lot happening over the last year, and QARN continues to be active.  We thank all those who have been working on our behalf, and those supporting our work.

The Steering Group currently consists of Barbara Forbes (to end of 2019*), Catherine Henderson (to end of 2018) and Bridget Walker (to end of 2019). Rosemary Crawley (Treasurer), Sheila Mosley (web-site, and network membership moderator), Fred Ashmore (QARN representative on Detention Forum) and Rhona French (QARN representative with Asylum Matters) are ex officio members of the Steering Group.

QARN working with BYM, QPSW, QCEA and Woodbrooke

BYM: on 2 December 2017 Meeting for Sufferings formally minuted that Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network – QARN is a Quaker recognised body (QRB).

We continue to support Jessica Metheringham in her Quaker Parliamentary work where appropriate. QARN also had a presence at Yearly Meeting in May 2018, but many members were not available to run a workshop and so ‘Sanctuary Everywhere’ took our slot. We are distinct Quaker organisations, but we also have much in common.

Quaker Peace and Social Witness – QPSW:  Tim Gee was employed in 2017 within QPSW to considering how concern about forced migration could usefully be taken forward. Arising from this work Quakers launched Sanctuary Meetings at Yearly Meeting in August 2017, and agreed the Sanctuary Everywhere Manifesto at Meeting for Sufferings in December 2017.  Tim has now moved on from this work in December 2017, and has been succeeded by Tatiana Garavito.

Tatiana has taken the Sanctuary Meetings movement forward, and there are now 80+ signed-up Meetings around the country. In some areas, QARN members are representatives for their Sanctuary Meeting; in other areas Meetings have chosen not to join for a variety of reasons. Further information about this work is available on the Quaker website http://quaker.org.uk/our-work/social-justice/migration

Tatiana is a member of the QARN network, and we have regular communication with her. Members of QARN have contributed information to The Sanctuary Everywhere booklet of testimonies. 

QARN Steering Group member, Bridget Walker was a member of the Forced Migration Interim Advisory Group which had oversight of the Forced Migration programme.  In 2018 it merged with the Crime, Community and Justice Sub-Comittee to become a new Social Justice Committee.

Quaker Council for European Affairs – QCEA: We continue to have a working relationship with QCEA. QARN members attended, and some held workshops at the QCEA Conference in Brussels in December 2017. QCEA is contributing ideas for our 2019 Conference at Woodbrooke.

Woodbrooke:  We are in the early stages of planning a further Conference at Woodbrooke, 27-29 September 2019, working with QPSW and QCEA, and with Woodbrooke staff. Further details will follow.

QARN Outreach

The play “The Bundle” which we commissioned from Journeymen Theatre, continues to be taking out key messages across the country. Current bookings continue into July 2018.

City of Sanctuary:  Several of our members are active in their local City of Sanctuary groups and have regularly reported on developments in this network.

Q-CAT: One of our members is a Trustee of the Quaker Concern for the Abolition of Torture and we continue to look for points at which our concerns overlap.

Representation on other bodies: We are represented on the Detention Forum by Fred Ashmore, and by Rhona French on Asylum Matters (formally Still Human, Still Here,  hosted by City of Sanctuary. Barbara Forbes and Catherine Henderson are our links to Churches Refugee Network. We have agreed to join Rethinking Security

Web-based memberships: We agreed that Sheila will join Free Movement and David will join Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association – ILPA.

Speakers: We continue to offer a speaker for Quaker Meetings. We participated in a series of talks about contemporary slavery at Ayrton Barn Meeting, Yorkshire.

Refugee Week: QARN members were busy during Refugee Week in June 2018.

Current focus:

Introduction of fees for applications that previously were free: we are very concerned that people who were given Discretionary Leave to Remain – DLR as an outcome of an asylum application are now being charged high fees to renew their Leave to Remain. Access to rights has become a means of raising revenue.

Four new QARN leaflets: We have updated our materials in relation to content, and in response to themes arising,. These can be found on the website and printed off from here: https://www.qarn.org.uk/homepage/new-qarn-leaflets-may-2018/ :

• About QARN
• Immigration Detention
• Language matters: challenging the language of asylum and migration
• Britain’s Hostile Environment

Website / Facebook / E-mail network

The Website and the Facebook page are updated as appropriate.

GDPR introduced in May 2018 requires us to check with everyone that they want to remain on the email list and some have left or not responded, however new people have joined us, and the Riseup eGroup continues with 93 members.

Finance

We have moved our account to the Reliance Bank, which enables us to make transactions online. Our funds are in a healthy state, and we are considering ways in which this can most usefully be managed. We thank those who have made donations over the last year.

We use our money to support on our core activities, for example to enable people to attend relevant meetings, and to enable us to have a website. Potential donors are advised that we do not make donations to other groups except where this will further our aims, for example ‘The Bundle’.

QARN Steering Group

July 2018

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QARN AGM 2017: 24 June 2017 in Leicester

QARN Annual Report 2017: The Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN) is a network of Quakers across the UK who share a concern about the injustices that are practised in our name, and a determination to bring about change for those who have been forced to seek asylum and to reach out with support for those who share our concern. QARN members hold discussions and share information through the email group, and those who can meet together about four times a year in a different part of the country each time.

Our members are active as individuals and as members of other groups (Quaker and non-Quaker) across a wide spectrum of asylum-related activities, giving us a broad and solid base of knowledge and expertise. We continue to be morally outraged at some of the decisions that are made by the Government and its agents in our name. 

Since our last AGM in July 2016, the network has met three times: in October 2016 in Manchester, in January 2017 in Birmingham, and in March 2017 in London. The Steering Group has held further meetings in between these dates. Every meeting begins with a report from those attending on the many and varied activities taking place across the country. There were also several meetings of the planning group for the conference held at Woodbrooke in February 2017.

The Steering Group currently consists of Barbara Forbes (to end of 2019), Catherine Henderson (to end of 2018*) and Bridget Walker (to end of 2019). John Cockcroft (treasurer) and Sheila Mosley (web-site moderator) are ex officio.

QARN working with BYM, QPSW, QCEA and Woodbrooke

Woodbrooke Conference

BYM/QPSW   We have met with Tim Gee who has been appointed to a new QPSW post on Forced Migration, and will be pleased to welcome him to our network meetings on a regular basis. Our Steering Group member Bridget Walker is part of Tim’s initial discernment team which helped to set the guidelines of his work.

We are also working on our appliction to BYM as a recognised group.

QCEA  We have developed closer ties with QCEA and some of our Steering Group members attended part of a QCEA British Committee meeting in March.  QCEA also published a blog entry by one of our members about the importance of the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights.

Woodbrooke  Our conference in February 2017 was very well attended. The conference was prepared in cooperation with QPSW and QCEA and in partnership with Woodbrooke. Plans for a pan-European network are in hand. Two of our members have been invited to run a workshop on City of Sanctuary at the QCEA conference in December 2017.
QUNO staff held a workshop at the conference and have published a briefing on refugees.

QARN Outreach: The play “The Bundle” which we commissioned from Journeymen Theatre, has had a very good reception across the Yearly Meeting. Performances have been booked until the end of 2017. Where possible, we encourage local QARN members to attend the performances to ensure that any following discussion is based on accurate information.

Members of the network have visited various local and Area Meetings to inform about the work of QARN and to offer support to our members in those meetings.

QARN and City of Sanctuary: Several of our members are active in their local City of Sanctuary groups and have regularly reported on developments in this network.

Q-CAT: Two of our members are trustees of the Quaker Concern for the Abolition of Torture and we continue to look for points at which our concerns overlap

Representation on other bodies: We are represented on the Detention Forum by Sheila Mosley (Judicial Oversight sub-committee) and Fred Ashmore, who took over from Bridget Walker at the end of 2016. We agreed to make Detention the main focus of our presence at YMG in August 2017.

We are also represented on the National Refugee Welcome Board by Catherine Henderson. Chris Gwyntopher represented us on Still Human,Still Here (now known as Asylum Matters and hosted by City of Sanctuary).

“The Hostile Environment”: The “hostile environment”, which Theresa May (as then Home Secretary) announced in 2013, is beginning to bite. We agreed that we will work towards preparing a document on this for use at YMG.

Website / Facebook / E-mail network: The Website and the Facebook page are updated as appropriate, and the e-mail network  via the Riseup eGroup continues with 117 members.  and has ensured that our is available to all who wish to join. We thank Sheila Mosley for her work and especially for the recent re-vamping of the website.

Finance: Our funds have been generously growing, thanks to donations from many Quaker meetings. This money was spent on our core funding, and for the Woodbrooke Conference. This came in under budget, thanks to substantial support from Woodbrooke Potential donors are advised that we do not hand money over to other groups.

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Minute from the ‘Forced Migration: how can Quakers respond’ Conference held at Woodbrooke 3-5 February 2017

Hosted by the Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network, Quaker Council on European Affairs, Quaker United Nations Office, Quaker Peace and Social Witness and Woodbrooke.

We remind Quakers of Advices & Queries 33 and 32:

Are you alert to practices here and throughout the world which discriminate against people on the basis of who or what they are or because of their beliefs? Bear witness to the humanity of all people, including those who break society’s conventions or its laws. Try to discern new growing points in social and economic life. Seek to understand the causes of injustice, social unrest and fear. Are you working to bring about a just and compassionate society which allows everyone to develop their capacities and fosters the desire to serve?

Bring into God’s light those emotions, attitudes and prejudices in yourself which lie at the root of destructive conflict, acknowledging your need for forgiveness and grace. In what ways are you involved in the work of reconciliation between individuals, groups and nations?

We came as individuals across the water, by road and rail, from countries across Europe, and cities, towns and villages in UK to focus our energy around forced migration and how Quakers can respond. We are all at different places on our journey, for some this is new, others bring years of commitment to supporting people seeking sanctuary and refugees, or of trying to change the system, and we share strong Quakerly commitment to peace, justice and equality that has guided us through the weekend together, and to healing the brokenness of our own societies.

The people who have brought us together have come from far away places where there is war, oppression of people on the basis of race, religion, nationality, gender, sexuality, belonging to a particular social group, or their political opinion, and others have fled war, famine, and poverty that has been created by climate change and politics. They too have travelled by many often-dangerous means to reach sanctuary, over water, and by road and rail. They come from cities, towns and villages looking for a safe place to live and for their children. Some of them are children, they travel alone, vulnerable, cold, hungry, frightened, brave and full of dreams.

We come from communities where some welcome those seeking safety and others do not. Others who have brought us together are decision-makers, MPs who create laws, Judges who interpret the laws, Home Office staff who put the law into action, private agencies that carry out work on behalf of the Government for example in providing accommodation, detention facilities, transport around the system and sometimes out of the country, and then there is the media.

All these people, and every person displaced whether in our own country or moving to another is in our thoughts.

Forced migration in its various forms is clearly a concern for Quakers to take forward in our individual lives, through our communities and Meetings, our Quaker bodies and Yearly Meetings, and when we work alongside others. We cannot change the world alone, however we may bring seeds of change and nourish the soil.

Quakers have through time been involved in every aspect of the humanitarian responses to forced migration including advocacy, legal help, trauma care, medical care, language and housing through the common thread of friendship.

If coming in a unsteady boat across the Mediterranean is anyone’s safest route, we as humanity can do better. We need a different language for migration because the current situation and discourse is ‘othering’ people.

We feel a deep leading to act together on a political level in Britain and at the European level. In doing so we are acting upon our heritage, our way of being, and the leading of the spirit.

We respond to Tim Gee’s invitation to put together a short publication to inform the basis of a spirit-led position of Quakers in Britain, and so to be sent for consideration by our Yearly Meeting. We invite the following people from the weekend to contribute a short 400-word draft on the following themes:

• Reflections after Calais – Renke Meuwese,
• A tested concern – Julia Bush,
• Causes of forced migration – Alex Randal and Andrew Lane,
• The experience of destitution in the UK – Chris Gwyntopher and Bridget Obi,
• The hostile environment – Barbara and David Forbes, and Gina Clayton,
• Detention centres – Crystal Dickinson,
• Brexit – Till Geiger,
• and Working for a safer world, Laurel Townhead.

The unconditional love that flows from our gathered Conference this weekend flows into the inspired Minute from yesterday’s Meeting for Sufferings that was read earlier.

We work towards the breaking down of all barriers that divide us and define us, whether between countries, in the NHS, between those who have faith and those who do not, or in our own minds.

We pray that the ‘scales will fall from our own eyes’ and those of our politicians – as they did from Saul when he sought to create a hostile environment in his time, and that we may be the leaves on the tree of life which are for the healing of nations.

“That which is morally wrong cannot be politically right” 1822 QFP 23.26

5 February 2017

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QARN Annual Report 2016

The Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN) is a network of Quakers across the UK who share a concern about the injustices that are practiced in our name, and a determination to bring about change for those who have been forced to seek asylum and to reach out with support for those who share our concern. QARN members hold discussions and share information through the email group, and those who can meet together about four times a year in a different part of the country each time.

Our members are active as individuals and as members of other groups (Quaker and non-Quaker) across a wide spectrum of asylum-related activities, giving us a broad and solid base of knowledge and expertise. We continue to be morally outraged at some of the decisions that are made by the Government and its agents in our name.

Since our last AGM we have met four times, in June 2015 (Birmingham), October 2015 (Oxford), January 2016 (London) and April 2016 (Bristol)

The Steering Group currently consists of Sheila Mosley (to end of 2016**)) Barbara Forbes (to end of 2016*), and Catherine Henderson (to end of 2018*). Our Treasurer, John Cockcroft also ends his first term at the end of 2016.

QARN working with BYM, QPSW, QCEA and Woodbrooke

Woodbrooke Conference

We are working towards holding a further Woodbrooke Conference 3-5 February 2017. A team of people from QARN, QPSW Central Committee, QCEA, and Woodbrooke are taking the planning forward.

We held a Special Interest Group at Yearly Meeting 2016 with the theme: ‘How do asylum and refugee issues fit into our Testimonies and speaking truth to power’. We asked people how they put the Testimonies into practice and heard that Quakers all over the UK are involved in a vast array of projects supporting people seeking asylum and refugees.

QPSW asked groups across Yearly Meeting how this issue may touch their concern, and we were invited to participate in the Quaker Criminal Justice Conference, and London Quakers Housing Conference; and we have been given time to talk at Quaker Meetings across the country: Oxford and Swindon, Mid Thames, Mid-Essex, Lancaster, East Cheshire – Marples, and Somerset – Street, with more to come.  In August we will break into Scotland.

We participated in the 2015 QCEA Conference in Brussels: ‘Castle or Community’.

 Situation in the Mediterranean

Sympathy for people seeking safety was released quite astonishingly when 3-year-old Alan Kurdi ‘s body was washed up on the beach in Turkey in September 2015.  QARN became a point of reference for distressed and imaginative Quakers wanting to do something to help, and this continues both practically in UK and the refugee camps, and with financial support.

People wanting to offer accommodation to refugees have been signposted to Spare Room. We have had discussions about sponsorship of refugees and have real concerns about how this may work, but individuals are working with others in their area to pressure their Councils to accept children, and Syrian refugees who are being re-homed under the Vulnerable Persons scheme.

Changes in the system

We continue to have a concern about the changes that make our system even more punitive, including the fees to renew Discretionary  Leave to Remain – DLR, the introduction of fees to lodge an appeal, the new rules under the Immigration Act 2016 that criminalise people without regular Leave to be in UK who drive, hold a job, have a bank account, or rent a property.

City of Sanctuary

QARN and Several of our members are active in their local City of Sanctuary groups. Craig Barnett who developed the vision for City of Sanctuary with others was a guest speaker at Yearly Meeting.

Q-CAT

Two of our members – Barbara Forbes and John Cockcroft – are trustees of the Quaker Concern for the Abolition of Torture and we are looking at ways in which we can work together.

We also have links with Still Human Still Here [destitution – Chris Gwyntopher], Churches Refugee Network [Marion McNichol], the National Refugees Welcome Board [Catherine Henderson], and the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland [Catherine Henderson].

Detention Forum

We are represented on the Detention Forum by Sheila Mosley (Judicial Oversight sub-committee) and Bridget Walker (Quarterly Meetings). Central England Area Meeting Asylum Group has also joined Detention Forum and one of its members has also joined the Judicial Oversight sub-committee.

Immigration Act 2016

Quakers with the guidance of Jessica Metheringham’s suggestions lobbied for changes in the Immigration Bill. The Detention Forum also worked extensively to promote a limit to time in detention. The amendment was not accepted, however there is now a four-month limit [84Cb] to the time someone can be held in Immigration Detention before being brought before a judicial authority; also pregnant women are not to be detained for longer than 72 hours.

Website / Facebook / E-mail network

The Website and the Facebook page are updated as appropriate, and the e-mail network via the Riseup eGroup continues with 112 members. Membership is available to all Quakers who wish to join.

Finance

Our funds have been generously growing, thanks to donations from many Quaker meetings. This money is spent on our core funding, and for the Conference. Potential donors are advised that we do not hand money over to other groups.

QARN Steering Group

July 2016

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9 April 2016: We are appalled that the Government now charges people who have been granted Discretionary Leave to Remain after applying for asylum an unaffordable fee when they apply for further Leave to Remain in order to stay in UK.

We would welcome an offer from a Local or Area Meeting to run with this issue, with the support of QARN.

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January 2016: There are many calls on QARN and we have continually made decisions to limit our links to a few external organisations addressing issues where we also have a key concern:  

Detention Forum  http://detentionforum.org.uk /
Still Human, Still Here https://stillhumanstillhere.wordpress.com/resources/
CTBI refugee crisis meetings Churches Together in Britain and Ireland
Churches Refugee Network:  Vigil for Refugees  https://ctbi.org.uk/churches-refugee-network/

We also have particular links with the following Quaker groups:

Quaker Campaign for the Abolition of Torture Q-CAT  http://www.q-cat.org.uk/
Quaker Peace and Social Witness http://www.quaker.org.uk/our-work
Quaker United Nations Office QUNO http://www.quno.org
Quaker Council for European Affairs QCEA http://www.quno.org/

We have had a presence at the December 2015 QCEA Conference: ‘Castle or Community’;
also February 2016: London Quakers Housing Conference and Quakers in Criminal Justice Conferences

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News Release: 05 September 2015

Quakers urgently call for safe paths for refugeesThe unfolding crisis of refugees fleeing across Europe, has prompted Quakers in Britain to urge the UK Government and other European Governments to create secure paths to safety.Quakers’ representative body meeting in London on Saturday (05 September) made this statement:
“That which is morally wrong cannot be politically right” (A Quaker statement in 1822).“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.“This exceptional time of need calls for a proportionate response from all the governments of Europe working together. We call for mechanisms to be created that will enable people to travel safely and to secure legal protection – including in Britain.“Refugees are fleeing from fear. Further violent interventions in countries such as Syria will not provide a solution. Difficult but compassionate decisions need to be made to secure peace for people in these regions.“Quakers assert that all human life is precious – each person is a child of God and the loss of one diminishes us all. In this severe crisis, we hear the Spirit calling us to throw ourselves into the fray with all the love and courage we can muster.”Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN) and Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) have previously called for safe paths to legal protection and protested against the cessation of funding for the Search and Rescue Operation in the Mediterranean.

Download here: 2015 Sept 5 Q Quakers urgently call for safe paths for refugees

Notes to editors
• Quakers are known formally as the Religious Society of Friends.
• Around 22,000 people attend 480 Quaker meetings in Britain. Their commitment to equality, justice, peace, simplicity and truth challenges them to seek positive social and legislative change.
• “That which is morally wrong cannot be politically right” is taken from Quaker Faith and Practice 23.26

• Read more on QARN here www.qarn.org.uk

• Read more on QCEA here https://www.qcea.org/ including the paper “Recommendations for the development of safe and legal paths to protection in the European Union”e
Media Information
Anne van Staveren
0207 663 1048
07958 009703
annev@quaker.org.uk
@mediaquaker
www.quaker.org.uk

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QARN Annual Report 2015

The Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network  (QARN) is a network of Quakers across the UK who share a concern about the injustices that are practiced in our name, and a determination to bring about change for those who have been forced to seek asylum and to reach out with support for those who share our concern. QARN members hold discussions and share information through the email group, and those who can meet together about four times a year in a different part of the country each time.

Our members are active as individuals and as members of other groups (Quaker and non-Quaker) across a wide spectrum of asylum-related activities, giving us a broad and solid base of knowledge and expertise.

Since our last AGM we have met  five times, in April 2014 (Birmingham), July 2014 (Oxford), October 2014 (Swansea) , January 2015 (London) and April 2015 (Birmingham)

The Steering Group currently consists of Sheila Mosley (to end of 2016)) and Barbara Forbes (to end of 2016). 

Woodbrooke Conference

In February 2015 we arranged a conference at Woodbrooke with the title “Detention, Destitution, Deportation”. This was a pioneering arrangement with Woodbrooke and QPSW and thanks to QPSW support we had an excellent attendance from all over the Yearly Meeting, with a large amount of knowledge and dedication amongst those present.

We have agreed to investigate holding a further Woodbrooke Conference in 2017.

Statement on Destitution

A sub-group of QARN worked on producing a Statement on Destitution which was adopted by  QARN and has subsequently been endorsed by several Area Meetings. It has also been presented to Meeting for Sufferings and we are planning to hold discussions with QPSW about the future of the statement.

QARN and BYM

We had a Special Interest Group at  Yearly Meeting 2015 with a focus on the situation in the Mediterranean.

We are proposing to hold discussions with QPSW about QARN’s relationship with central work and the extent to which we can speak on behalf of Friends.

Situation in the Mediterranean

Brian Kendall and Catherine Henderson have brought this concern to QARN and it has become one of our main ongoing concerns.

Discretionary Leave to Remain: We  have been made aware of the sudden changes to applications for renewal of DLR, brought in overnight in April.

City of Sanctuary: Several of our members are active in their local City of Sanctuary groups and QARN has also joined as a group, endorsing City of Sanctuary’s Eight Principles .

Q-CAT: Two of our members are trustees of the  Quaker Concern for the Abolition of Torture and we are looking at ways in which we can work together.

Detention Forum: We are represented on the Detention Forum by Sheila Mosley (Judicial Oversight sub-committee) and Bridget  Walker  (Indefinite  Detention sub-committee).Central England Area Meeting Asylum Group has also joined Detention Forum and one of its members has also joined the Judicial  Oversight sub-committee.

Website / Facebook / E-mail network

Sheila Mosley keeps the Website and the Facebook page up-to-date and has ensured that our e-mail network is available to all who wish to join.

Finance

We are aware that the funds in our account are dwindling and we are considering strategies to address this.  We will need to raise about £1000 a year to cover our costs.

Parliamentary Activity

We submitted evidence to the All-Parliamentary Inquiry into Indefinite Detention.

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Destitution

At a Meeting for Sufferings held in London on Saturday 28 March 2015 MfS/15/03/15 Asylum Seekers:

Destitution: We receive the following minutes from Area Meetings: South East London AM minute 14/102; Pendle Hill AM minute 10; Leeds AM minute AM14/109; North East Thames AM minute 15/36; Leicester AM minute 15/32; South Wales AM minute 14:12:07; and Oxford and Swindon AM minute 16/2015c. These minutes bring to our attention a statement made by Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network about the use of destitution as an instrument of immigration control. Sheila Moseley of Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network has spoken to the concern. Many Friends are deeply troubled by the situation and we have heard of the work that Friends are doing locally, both as Meetings and as individuals. Many are working with local asylum and refugee groups, the Red Cross and the City of Sanctuary movement. This is not an issue that is going to go away quickly, and we feel it would be useful to develop a public statement that we can use in working with national and local governments. We forward this minute to QPSW Central Committee and ask them to bring a draft back to a future meeting.

Ethel Livermore, Clerk

Juliet Prager, Deputy Recording Clerk

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Detention, Destitution and Deportation – gathering Quaker energy to speak truth to power’, Conference over the weekend of 6-8 February 2015 at Woodbrooke, Birmingham.

QARN: Withdrawal of search and rescue operations

‘That which is morally wrong cannot be politically right’ 1822 Quaker Faith and Practice 23:26

 

 

QARN: Statement about destitution

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Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network – QARN: Annual Report 2014

Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network is a network of Quakers across UK who share a concern about the injustices that are practiced in our name, and a determination to bring about change for those who have been forced to seek asylum and to reach out with support for those who share our concern. QARN members hold discussions and share information through the email group, and those who can meet together about four times a year in a different part of the country each time.We have continued to meet – September, November 2013, February 2014.

We use our face-to-face meetings to discuss our concerns, and to find a Quaker response to the injustices we find.  We consider ways to bring this alive to other Quakers, and to plan our engagement with others who are walking the same path so that we can effectively combine our strengths to bring about positive change.

The Steering Group consists of Sheila Mosley (^XX to end of 2016), Tim Neal (^x to end of 2015) and Barbara Forbes (^x to end of 2016).  We thank Elizabeth Coleman for her strong steer as she steps down from the Steering Group.Going forward we would like to be able to meet in other locations, and for some of us maybe stay overnight so that the next day we can visit local meetings to talk about the work of QARN

• QARN decided in the early days to focus on those who were in detention which is in our Quaker tradition, and to join our voices to those who sought a commitment to stopping the practice of detaining children for immigration purposes.  There have been welcome changes in the system and fewer children are now held in detention centres, but it is still a live issue and remains a concern.

• We added a second major concern, that of bringing an end to the practice of holding people who have been refused asylum in indefinite detention, again for immigration purposes.  We have a formal link to the Detention Forum.
• In 2013/14 we decided to widen our focus to work for the ending of destitution, and we are in the process of setting up a specific link to Still Human Still Here

We sent a contribution to the Home Affairs Select Committee on Asylum

We have a useful linkwith Jessica Metheringham who has responsibility for Quaker Parliamentary Liaison and have been able to build links between Jessica and the Detention Forum. She also formed a link for us with issues around the Immigration Bill that has been going through Parliament.

We have a link to the Churches Refugee Network.

Our issues link closely with those of QPSW and Quaker Concern for the Abolition of Torture

Membership of Detention Forum: The Detention Forum is a loose network of over 30 NGOs who are working on immigration detention issues.  We are working together to build a momentum to question the legitimacy of immigration detention which has become such a normal part of the British immigration system. 

We are not a membership organisation, but a collective of organisations who want to work together to challenge immigration detention. QARN has two members on the Detention Forum working groups, one considering Indefinite Detention, and the other in the Judicial Oversight group.

Social media: We continue to manage a website where reports and information is uploaded alongside ideas about what you can do: https://qarn.org.ukWe also have a Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/QuakersQARN

During the past twelve months we have had a presence at:

• Britain Yearly Meeting, with a Special Interest Group and a stall at the Group Fair
• QPSW Spring Conference 2014, where Tim presented workshops

Our individual interests: it is clear from our circle time that we have a wide variety of interests and involvement in supporting individuals and groups, and with organisations that aim to change the system

Future plans in the making:Yearly Meeting Gathering: we will have a presence at the Gathering, 2-9 August 2014

Conference: We are organising a conference with Woodbrooke that will take place over the weekend of 6-8 February 2015. We agreed that the following two points were a good working description of aims for such a conference:

• To provide an opportunity for mutual support for Friends doing very emotionally demanding work supporting people dependent on UKBA decisions and facing detention, destitution and/or deportation.
• To support and encourage political action for change such as bringing an end to indefinite detention and the use of destitution as an instrument of immigration control.

Further statements: we plan to produce statements relating to other aspects of the asylum system that concern us.

25 April 2014

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Quaker statement on indefinite immigration detention

[The QARN statement (see below) has now been adapted by Quakers in Britain and may be used in correspondence with press and local MPs: http://www.quaker.org.uk/news/quaker-statement-immigration-detention]

That which is morally wrong cannot be politically right.1822 Quaker faith & practice 23.26

We urgently call for the ending of indefinite detention, which is fundamentally unjust and causes much suffering to its victims.As Quakers we believe that there is that of God in everyone. We see the Testimony to Equality as clearly relevant to our concerns about those migrants and asylum seekers who are kept in detention. They are treated much worse than those born British. The right to liberty is a fundamental right enjoyed by all people in the United Kingdom, whether British citizens or subject to immigration control.  It is a right established in common law as well as protected by the European Convention on Human Rights. Recent anti-terror legislation that allows for terror suspects to be locked up without being charged has been controversial. There has justifiably been an outcry about it and the time limit has now been reduced to 14 days. However, thousands of people are kept every year in detention by the UK Borders Agency with no date set for their release, yet there is no public outrage about this.The Immigration Act 1971 first included the power to detain immigrants; later legislation has extended or amended that power. People can be detained on arrival in the UK as immigrants or when seeking asylum, if considered likely to abscond, or when they have already been refused the right to remain and deportation is expected to be imminent.The decision to detain is made by immigration officers without reference to a court. In theory each detainee has the right to apply for bail after 7 days, but many people are unaware of this procedure and find it difficult to access legal advice. The immigration court ‘judges’ do not have to be trained or experienced to the level of senior judiciary, inadequate records are kept, and in many cases the Home Office view that the applicant is likely to abscond is accepted without evidence.In theory it is Government policy not to detain survivors of torture or those with serious medical conditions or mental health problems, but in practice even proven survivors of rape and torture, pregnant women, and those with severe mental and physical health problems are often found in detention. Many innocent men, women and children who have been locked up in immigration detention centres have suffered severe mental health problems, with detention in many cases adding to trauma already suffered in their home country.Download here: 2012 May Q Quaker Statement on Indefinite Immigration DetentionPDF: 2012 May Q Quaker Statement on Indefinite Immigration Detention

May 2012

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