Local Campaigning

2021 saw two demonstrations, one in Settle and one in Skipton against the Nationality and Borders Bill. See Eevents for more details of these.

There were three vigils in the area after tragic deaths in the Channel in November – in Grassington, Skipton and Bentham.  See Events for more details

We have been holding a series of talk on Zoom with the hope of bringing people together to take action and be more involved in campaigning.

The first presentation was from Stella Perrot titled  “Refugees: making sense of the current situation and how you can help”  The recorded talk is here https://youtu.be/t2G-YSKg2uE

The second talk was titled “Working at the sharp end” and featured Tina Brocklebank speaking about her voluntary work on Chios, Greece and Phil McCarthy speaking about his work with Pendle New Neighbours. The recording is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V1RZlIL_0M

A third talk is by Allies for Justice, part of Detention Action, who are a group of people with lived experience campaigning for a fairer asylum system in the UK. There is no recording available of this talk which was titled “Shining a Light”.

National Campaigns

Together With Refugees is an umbrella group https://togetherwithrefugees.org.uk/ which is supported by many of the refugee charities and pressure groups. The campaign is opposing the Nationality and Borders Bill currently going through Parliament. City of Sanctuary is also campaigning strongly against the Bill https://bordersbill.cityofsanctuary.org/

Lift the Ban is a campaign for the right to work for asylum seekers. Currently they are not allowed to work and live on a small amount of money to spend on essential needs. There is a strong coalition of charities, trade unions, businesses, faith groups and think tanks campaigning to overturn the Government’s ban on people seeking asylum being able to work.

Safe Passage for children who are often alone in Europe so that they can re-join their families is an important campaign currently https://www.safepassage.org.uk/    

City of Sanctuary https://cityofsanctuary.org/about/