News

Celebrating Refugee Week and the Bristol Refugee Festival

25th June 2025

We had a wonderful time celebrating Refugee Week at the Bristol Refugee Festival celebration on Sunday!

This year for Refugee Week, the theme was Community as a Superpower. Every day at Bristol Refugee Rights we see the power of community – from our volunteers who support people to feel welcome and access advice and support, to our supporters who donate to keep our services running, and to members of the community who offer simple gestures to help create feelings of welcome and belonging.

Thank you so much to all the members, volunteers, and new and old friends of BRR who came along to our stall to say hi and add messages of support and welcome to our bunting. These messages are a counter to the hostility we so often hear in the news, and are an important reminder of the huge levels of support and solidarity for asylum seekers and refugees in our community.

Joint civil society statement on the Supreme Court ruling on Rwanda

15 November 2023

We are relieved today that the Supreme Court has made the right decision and declared that Rwanda is not a safe country for this Government to send people needing safety. The Rwanda plan was always cruel and immoral. We urge the Government to immediately abandon such plans with Rwanda or with any other country, and instead protect the rights of people who have come to our country in search of sanctuary.

While we welcome the decision today, we remain concerned by this Government’s overall treatment of people who move to this country. We are alarmed by this Government’s continuous efforts to detain and forcibly send people to countries where they may not know anyone, especially if it puts them at risk of harm and human rights violations. We know that as a community we are compassionate and welcoming, and we need immigration policies that are rooted in that same care, compassion, and respect for human rights. We call on everyone to stand up for the rights of people seeking sanctuary, regardless of where they come from or how they travel here.

Signed:

1. Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI)

2. Bristol Refugee Rights

and 138 other civil society organisations