Public Meeting - Strangers into Citizens

Bristol Refugee Rights - Membership Newsletter No.2   March 2009

“STRANGERS INTO CITIZENS”

Bristol Refugee Rights believes that people seeking sanctuary in Britain should be treated fairly, humanely and with dignity.  Among other reforms, we want asylum seekers to be given the right to work, in order to end the destitution which many suffer while they are awaiting a resolution of their asylum claim.

With this in mind, we are jointly organising a public meeting with the church of St Nicholas Tolentino on Monday 27 April at 7.30 pm.  It will take place on the St Nicholas church premises (junction of Stapleton Road and Lawford’s Gate, Easton). We are inviting all BRR members and supporters to come, together with the refugees and asylum seekers who attend our weekly Welcome Centre.

Our guest speaker, Minoo Jalali, a human rights lawyer with great experience of the asylum control system, and herself someone who came to the UK as a refugee, will explain how the asylum system forces thousands of people, through no fault of their own, to spend months, sometimes years, living in poverty, denied adequate support from public services, and denied the right to support themselves by taking paid employment.

The demand that they should have the right to work has the support of many organisations, including Amnesty International UK, Refugee Action, the Refugee Council, trade unions and employers’ organisations and many faith groups.  It will be one of the issues raised at a big national “Strangers into Citizens” rally in Trafalgar Square, London, on Monday 4 May, a week after our Bristol meeting.  Asylum seekers resident in Bristol will be going to the rally, and BRR members who would like to be there can book places on the coaches taking campaigners to it by ringing 0117 9441481

In preparation for our own meeting, we attach a copy of a petition form which already has much support.  We ask you, please, to invite people to sign it and to bring the completed form with you on 27 April, or send it to us.  The petition forms will then be taken by a group of asylum seekers to the surgery of one of our Bristol MPs.

Please put the date – 27 April – in your diary, tell your friends about the campaign, and bring them with you to St Nicholas Tolentino.