Refugee support group the DEWA Project are partnering with mental health practitioners and solicitors to assist women asylum seekers who have suffered sexual or domestic violence. The Home Office Gender Asylum Plan has recognised that woman asylum seekers should be provided with access to trauma counselling and asylum rights information and should not have to relate their story in front of their children or to a male interviewers or interpreter. Azz Mohammed reports for Sheffield Live!
More than 50 restaurants in South Yorkshire and North East Derbyshire have teamed up to organise a dinner evening to raise money for Rohingya refugees. According to the United Nations, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya muslims have arrived in Bangladesh with minimal belongings gathered as they fled Myanmar in the wake of sectarian violence and persecution. Baillor Jalloh reports for Sheffield Live!
A community group in Darnall are organising a charity car wash to raise funds for the Rohingya people that are fleeing Myanmar in the face of widespread killings and sectarian violence. Over half a million Rohingya men, women and children have fled the country since the violence began, according to the United Nations. Most have sought refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh. Azz Mohammed reports for Sheffield Live!
The five day festival, with the theme Migration Matters, explores through theatre and arts how migration has made a positive contribution to the city and community life. Sheffield Live! reporter Baillor Jalloh spoke to Katelyn Mckeown and Firas Sharefy, co-founders of Open Kitchen Social Club.
It is ten years since Sheffield was declared the UK’s first city of sanctuary for refugees and asylum seekers and celebrations are planned as part of Refugee Week 2017. A recent survey commisioned by the BBC indicated almost half of people in Sheffield (46 per cent) back the City of Sanctuary movement’s aim to welcome refugees and asylum seekers, but one third oppose the idea and 19 per cent expressed no view. Baillor Jalloh reports for Sheffield Live!
Stuart Crossthwaite, general secretary of the South Yorkshire Migration, Asylum and Action Group has warned of chaos from closing the ‘Jungle’ migrant camp in Calais. More than a thousand police and officials in France have been engaged in clearing the camp which has housed at least 7,000 people. The UK has now begun to accept some of the estimated 1300 unaccompanied children from the camp. The first group without family ties to the UK has arrived in Britain under the “Dubs amendment” rules, which grant refuge to the most vulnerable.
Councillor Jayne Dunn, cabinet member for housing on Sheffield City Council, is asking the government to give local authorities more money to help refugees. Her plea comes after more than a hundred refugee children arrived in the UK last week from the Calais camp known as the “Jungle.” On Wednesday, French authorities in Calais announced completion of the operation to move thousands of migrants out of the camp. The announcement came as parts of the Jungle continued to burn after fires were set overnight and in the morning. Baillor Jalloh reports for Sheffield Live!
Protestors gathered outside Sheffield train station on Friday to call for the UK to provide more support in accepting child refugees from the Jungle camp in Calais. The peaceful demonstration was designed to raise awareness of the plight of refugee children. Children’s shoes were lined up outside the station to symbolise the young refugees in need and protestors lit candles and waved banners. A similar protest was also organised in Barnsley. Sheffield Live! reporter Baillor Jalloh spoke to Val Huzzard from Sheffield Donations for Refugees.
Hundreds of people marched through Sheffield city centre today to show their support for refugees in Syria and welcome more into the city. The rally, organised by Sheffield City of Sanctuary, went from the bottom of the Moor to the Town Hall, where there were a number of speakers, including Director of Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti. They were aiming to send a message to Sheffield City Council and the Government that Britain should take more refugees stranded in Europe. This follows the campaigners handing in a petition to the council on Wednesday. Sheffield City Council said they will resettle one hundred and thirty refugees this year, and have offered to take ten to fifteen Syrian families as soon as possible.
The government have announced Britain will allow thousands of Syrian refugees to resettle in the country.