#BeARefugeeSponsor calls for the expansion and diversification of the UK Community Sponsorship resettlement scheme of Syrian refugees as the numbers of those displaced increases.
Chris Clement, former director of RESET, talks about the vital work of supporting 100 communities willing to welcome refugee families in the UK under the community sponsorship scheme. The RESET team provides community groups with information about housing, financial commitment and training potential sponsors on how to integrate resettled refugees. They also provide guidance to sponsors throughout the … Read more →
More than 11,000 children living in camps in northern Syria have been affected by torrential rains that have caused floods and washed away tents. Unusually severe winter weather and storms have brought chaos to camps in Syria’s Idlib province as well as to sites in Lebanon as they are left devastated. Aid workers warn there is a real risk people will freeze to death as temperatures have already dropped to -1C, amid a shortage of blankets and … Read more →
Charlie Fraser, Director of The Entrepreneurial Refugee Network, (TERN) tells IOHR about how his NGO helps refugees develop their business ideas and access the UK workplace. TERN has built a community of more than100 refugee entrepreneurs in London and has recently led a campaign to launch 1000 refugee businesses by 2025 … Read more →
The remaining 1,500 refugees still stuck in the infamous Calais ‘Jungle’ camp are being violently displaced by French police. A ‘Help Refugees’ census of 2016 counted 7,307 migrants at the camp and this figure was reported to have surged to 10,000 after the Brexit referendum. The destruction of camps has forced many of the refugees, largely Afghan, Eritrean or Sudanese, and a small population of Iranians, mostly men aged … Read more →
People are fleeing Honduras every day. Staying put is impossible with gang violence and human rights violations mounting in Honduras, but the journey to the United States is turned into a nightmare by the Guatemalan and Mexican authorities. … Read more →
Syrian residents attempting to return home to towns such as Qaboun and Darayya, neighbourhoods in Damascus, are being blocked from returning home by the Syrian government. Residents told Human Rights Watch that the government has also been, ‘demolishing their properties with no warning, and without providing alternative housing or compensation.’ … Read more →
The UNHCR, the UN’s Refugee Agency is facing an urgent shortfall of US$270 million for their work with Syrian refugees and internally displaced people. The money is needed to provide cash assistance, protection, education, health and shelter services for the 5.6 million Syrian refugees in the Levant region for the rest of 2018. UNHCR are concerned that the lack of funding will cause a shortfall of essential winter supplies and if the … Read more →
UNRWA is the only UN agency committed to helping refugees from a specific region. The US has announced it will stop all funding to UNRWA, the UN Works and Relief Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. UNRWA has provided education, health care food and social services to millions of Palestinian refugees for almost 70 years. The US State Department said in a written statement that the United States, “will no longer commit further funding to this irredeemably flawed operation”. … Read more →
IOHR has launched the #BeARefugeeSponsor campaign to call for the expansion of the UK Community Sponsorship of Syrian Refugees scheme. To support the campaign, IOHR held an event in Westminster, London – The Benefits of Community Sponsorship of Syrian Refugees – to expand on our primary research into best practice in Canada. The event brought together the leading Canadian and UK practitioners … Read more →
Bekele Woyecha – Community Sponsorship of refugees – The new route for refugee resettlement in the UK. Bekele Woyecha from Sponsor Refugees gives IOHR TV insight into the UK’s Community Sponsorship scheme which gives community groups the opportunity to support the resettlement of Syrian refugee families in the UK by providing financial, emotional and practical support … Read more →
The initiation of the new National Community Sponsorship Awards was announced in St. George’s Cathedral at the annual Migrants’ Mass on 7th May 2018. Officially sponsored by IOHR, the awards to be held on 2nd October 2018 will celebrate more than 100 community sponsorship groups that are calling for the expansion of the sponsorship scheme in the UK. … Read more →
The Canadian private sponsorship of refugees – an example for the UK. Based on the highly successful Canadian model, the UK has launched the Community Sponsorship scheme that gives community groups including charities the chance to be involved in supporting the resettlement of vulnerable people fleeing conflict. … Read more →
Doaa Elbayad, UNHCR protection officer in Iraqi Kurdistan talks about the challenges the UNHCR faces to support refugees. UNHCR is facing an urgent shortfall of US$270 million for their work with Syrian refugees and internally displaced people. The money is needed to provide cash assistance, protection, education, health and shelter … Read more →
Tima Kurdi the aunt of Alan Kurdi the two-year old Syrian who boy was found dead on a Turkish beach in 2015 after fleeing war-torn Syria and drowning in the Mediterranean, traveled from Canada to the UK to share her family’s tragic story and lobby the UK government to extend the resettlement of refugees past the year 2020. … Read more →
The International Observatory of Human Rights (IOHR) is bringing Tima Kurdi – aunt of drowned Syrian child Alan Kurdi – to London where she will deliver an address at the National Liberal Club to support the community sponsorship scheme to bring Syrian refugees to “safe harbour” in Europe. … Read more →
IOHR partnered with the Greater London Authority and brought together more than twenty-five business leaders, public sector policy makers, refugees, NGOs to launch the #WorkWellRefugees campaign. Panelists and workshop participants discussed how to include more refugees in the UK workplace. … Read more →
The 28 February 2017 will forever be etched on my memory. On that day the most wonderful, resilient, inspiring family came into my life. As I stood at the arrivals gate at Gatwick Airport, minutes before they came through, I worried about how things would be. I already knew each of their names and ages and a few details about their background. Two days earlier, I’d taken out the passport-sized photos … Read more →