Here is an event that should be interesting! QARN is doing a workshop on advocacy.
Church of Sanctuary Conference 8 June 2024, Birmingham
Migration and Peace in Europe
Migration and Peace in Europe: Woodbrooke, Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network and Quaker Council for European Affairs working in partnership: This course runs 11 June – 2 July 2024 on Zoom
What are the links between migration and peace? This course, led by the Quaker Asylum Refugee Network and Saskia Basa, Migration and Peace Coordinator at the Quaker Council of European Affairs, will seek to answer this question.
The live Zoom sessions are every Tuesday at 18:30-20:00 (UK time)
The course is co-ordinated by Saskia Basa – QCEA, and Catherine Henderson – QARN
For more information and to book a place, please find more information here: https://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/courses/migration-and-peace-in-europe/
Migrant Help strategy 2024 – 2029
From Migrant Help – it is useful to know what they consider to be their strategy, so that we can do what we can to help them stick to their plan
Migrant Help: We are pleased to present Migrant Help’s new organisational strategy for 2024 to 2029.
The 60th anniversary of the charity, that we marked in 2023, has provided the right pivotal moment to reflect on the past, the present and to plan for our future.
To develop this strategy we brought together staff, trustees and clients in multiple workshops over 12 months to set the new objectives, determine outcomes and specify the actions needed to achieve our aims.
Continue reading “Migrant Help strategy 2024 – 2029”QARN next meetings
QARN meetings: next planned meeting dates: on Zoom on Saturdays: July 6th 2024 to include the AGM which will be a blended meeting held face-to-face between 11am and 4pm at Bradford-on-Avon Meeting as well as on Zoom, and thereafter on Zoom on October 12th, and January 11th 2025.
We usually meet quarterly using Zoom and all Quakers are welcome. We plan to start at 10.30am to manage the technical aspects of a Zoom meeting, falling quiet at around 10.45am, and beginning business at 11am; and we aim to end around 12.30pm. The meeting link will be available to those who receive our emails, but for other people, please contact us via info@qarn.org.uk giving your name, and the Quaker Meeting to which you are attached. Thank you.
Continue reading “QARN next meetings”QARN Leaflets: Download them here
8 February 2024: Please note that in our leaflet: ‘QARN – What do Quakers hope for, after the 2024 General Election‘, we mention a model letter for MPs. We have instead produced a crib sheet to highlight the concerns raised in the leaflet, in the hope that people can use this to write to/ speak with prospective MPs or wherever it is useful.
QARN – What do Quakers hope for, after the 2024 General Election
This leaflet was updated March 2024:
Continue reading “QARN Leaflets: Download them here”MPs vote to throw out amendments to Rwanda deportation bill
18 April 2024: Politico: LAST NIGHT IN THE LORDS
WE GO AGAIN: The Rwanda Bill will go to a fourth round of parliamentary ping-pong next week, after the House of Lords once again refused to yield on Sunak’s small boats legislation. The Lords delivered an unexpected double defeat to the government on Wednesday night as a coalition of Labour, Lib Dem and crossbench peers blocked the plan for a third time.
Send it back: Peers have sent two amendments back to the Commons, including one which calls for an independent body to verify Rwanda as a safe country. This in contrast with the government’s bill, which unilaterally declares Rwanda as safe regardless of any court rulings, facts, or other inconveniences. The other amendment passed by the Lords calls for exemptions to the small boats policy for people who have helped Britain’s armed forces, such as Afghan interpreters. The BBC has a write-up of Wednesday night’s votes.
Finger pointing: Home Secretary James Cleverly said it had been a “politically cynical effort” by Labour and the Lib Dems to block the bill in the Lords again. Shadow Home Office Minister Stephen Kinnock shot back that “this is their mess, and they have no idea how to solve it.”
Continue reading “MPs vote to throw out amendments to Rwanda deportation bill”Continuing Conflicts That Create Refugees – April 2024
8 April 2024: Crisis Watch: Continuing Conflicts That Create Refugees – April 2024
Deteriorated Situations: Afghanistan / Pakistan / South China Sea / Venezuela / Haiti / Somalia / Bosnia And Herzegovina / Russia (Internal) / Israel/Palestine
Violence escalated in Haiti after the country’s two largest gang coalitions launched coordinated attacks across the capital Port-au-Prince to deter an international security mission from deploying. Gangs targeted critical sites, freed over 4,700 inmates and forced tens of thousands to flee.
Electoral authorities in Venezuela blocked the opposition coalition from registering their banned candidate María Corina Machado or her replacement, in an apparent bid to strengthen President Maduro’s hand in the lead-up to July elections.
Continue reading “Continuing Conflicts That Create Refugees – April 2024”Urgent notice: Home Office offers of ‘voluntary departure’ to Rwanda
14 March 2024:We have received reports that the Home Office is calling people to offer ‘voluntary departure’ to Rwanda.
This scheme is separate to the initial Rwanda policy (which was defeated in the Supreme Court), the Rwanda Treaty which was recently signed by the Home Secretary, and the Safety of Rwanda Bill which is currently being rushed through Parliament.
Continue reading “Urgent notice: Home Office offers of ‘voluntary departure’ to Rwanda”Home Office immigration database errors hit more than 76,000 people
14 March 2024: Guardian: Exclusive: Names, photos and migration status being mixed up, preventing people applying for jobs and housing
Major flaws in a huge Home Office immigration database have resulted in more than 76,000 people being listed with incorrect names, photographs or immigration status.
Leaked internal documents reveal the scale of the database fiasco at the Home Office, which has recently been criticised for delays in immigration application processing, long queues at borders and the distribution of incorrect identity cards.
The Home Office has been relatively silent about the database failures, referring vaguely to them as “IT issues”. Ministers have denied there is a “systemic” problem with Atlas, the tool used by border officials and immigration officers which operates off the flawed database.
Continue reading “Home Office immigration database errors hit more than 76,000 people”Hotel Chain Voted UK’s Worst Makes Tens of Millions a Year from Housing Asylum Seekers in Harmful Conditions
15 March 2024: Byline Times: Hotel Chain Voted UK’s Worst Makes Tens of Millions a Year from Housing Asylum Seekers in Harmful Conditions
A hotel chain voted the UK’s worst has made tens of millions of pounds and brought itself back from financial uncertainty after it became one of the Home Office’s main sources of accommodation for asylum seekers, Byline Times can reveal.
Britannia Hotels has made over £150m over the last decade, which it has spent as one of the main suppliers of hotel accommodation for asylum seekers.
The firm has been voted the UK’s worst hotel chain for the last 11 years running.
Byline Times spoke to asylum seekers housed in Britannia Hotels for months on end who described refugees attempting suicide, living in fear of harassment in dirty rooms; conditions so bad that one charity said were actively “harming people’s health”.
Continue reading “Hotel Chain Voted UK’s Worst Makes Tens of Millions a Year from Housing Asylum Seekers in Harmful Conditions”