Asylum and refugee support

A fundraiser for two charities GARAS and Migrant Action

GARAS Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers) opens the door to support those seeking asylum in Gloucestershire, welcoming them when they arrive, advocating for them in their daily struggles, supporting them if they face being sent back and helping them adjust to their long term future if they are recognised as ‘refugees’. We work with those arriving within the asylum process and those being resettled here.

Our clients have fled persecution (including imprisonment, torture and abuse), conflict, famine or hardship in their home country and taken extreme risks to reach a place of safety. All are desperate for security and respect and to rebuild their personal and working lives in peace.

Migrant Action was established in 2016 as an Advocacy and Rights based organisation providing information, guidance, advocacy support and direct practical assistance to ‘vulnerable’ migrants. Migrant Action works with migrants who have fallen through the cracks of the immigration system including (but not restricted to) stateless people, those who have been unable to regularise their status and those on temporary visas. We work to ensure equity of rights and justice for migrants, and although the primary focus of our work is not with asylum seekers and refugees, we do signpost them to appropriate agencies

Service provision for non-asylum seekers is undefined and limited. In Leeds, migrants seeking information, guidance, advice, advocacy and integration support struggle to find where to go to for help. Many vulnerable migrants are confined to the ‘edges’ of society and face daily, the real risk of exploitation, destitution, child poverty, detention, forced removal and deportations without access to justice. Vulnerable migrants with entrenched complex needs encounter restricted access to service provision which has far reaching implications for their health and well being. Migrant Action is set up in response to this gap in service provision working with other vulnerable migrants who are not asylum seekers.