Features / #BristolCharityAdventCalendar
Bristol Charity Advent Calendar 2018, day 9: Bristol Refugee Rights
Set up in 2006 to uphold and champion the human rights of asylum seekers and refugees, Bristol Refugee Rights provides vital welcome and support.
The volunteer-led organisation offers people arriving in the city – many of whom have faced immense trauma – practical help and advice, as well as assisting with integration, empowerment, social inclusion and enabling individuals to play a role in the wider community.
Beyond this, the charity also campaigns for the human rights of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.
is needed now More than ever
Bristol Refugee Rights directs members to services and support, including interpreting classes
The charity is running a campaign throughout the festive period, #BRRAdventAppeal, appealing for funding to maintain its vital advice services.
Grant funding is coming to an end and, so far, the team has not been able to secure the money needed to safeguard the service that supports around 400 people a year with issues such as homelessness and the complex asylum process.
Bristol Refugee Rights says that without this service, it could be forcing people who have already faced traumatic events, into long term destitution and the charity hopes to raise £29,000 to see it over the next few months while a more sustainable source is found.
On Sunday, December 9, Bristol Refugee Rights holds its annual Human Rights Day event at the Malcolm X Centre in St Paul’s.
The event will bring together more than 100 residents to ask ‘How can Bristol welcome refugees in an increasingly hostile environment?’.
Bristol Refugee Rights director Beth Wilson said: “The 1951 Refugee Convention makes provision for the rights of people who are displaced and places legal obligations on the UK, as well as other states, to protect them.
“However, increasingly those rights are being eroded by an ever-increasing number of laws which seek to make the lives of asylum seekers impossible with the aim of encouraging them to go home or discouraging them from fleeing in the first place.
“We need to choose whether Bristol will be a city of welcome or a hostile environment for asylum seekers and refugees.”
Read more: The Bristol project providing a safe haven for refugee children
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