Moving Beyond Borders.
Asylum Seeking in the UK, is a devisive subject and probably the most powerful catalyst for Brexit.
Regardless of any opinions, asylum-seekers coming to this country need all the welcome and friendliness once they are here. Whilst the controversial ‘hostile environment’ policy is supposed to deter them from coming to the UK, the Home Office’s policies appear to have had a disproportionately negative impact on people of colour. The governments’ own evaluation of the legislation has shown that while family homes are sought for victims of the war in Ukraine, desperate people fleeing Syria, Africa etc are being treated very differently. Although this situation is couched with far-right rhetoric like ‘invasion‘ and ‘crisis‘, the reality is that the UK manages just 8% of all asylum applications in the whole of Europe.
Beyond Borders Totnes and District is one of the many local volunteer efforts, found all across the country, to offer befriending and support to often desperate people, who have fled from tyranny, war and oppression within their own countries.
Beginnings
Founded in 2015 in response to the mass migration of Syrian people fleeing from war and the concern of local people here to respond in some way to that crisis, Beyond Borders have continued since then as a network of people in the Totnes area offering their time, skills and care to befriend and support asylum-seekers and refugees. They are mainly focussed on those who come to Plymouth.
Wendy Stayt, one of several co-ordinators says “We ally ourselves closely to the official agencies like British Red Cross, Devon and Cornwall Refugee Support (DCRS), Plymouth Hope, Mount Gould Hospital, who offer a variety of direct services to these people in need, and we have continued to do this, with a key focus on asylum seekers and those recently granted refugee status coming from many parts of the world.”
They also work closely with other local organisations such as Food in the Community, churches and Quakers in Totnes.
Controversy
More recently, following the overcrowding scandal at the Manston Migrant Centre in Kent, government policy has led to the use of hotels as temporary accommodation for asylum-seekers, they have also been offering support of various kinds to those accommodated in Torbay, again working closely with local organisations who are addressing the needs of those finding themselves in limbo there. At one location in Torbay, the migrant residents have been relocated to a delapidated hotel with a security team on reception, provided with the most basic of food, not permitted to earn money and given £8.24 a week.
As a group, Beyond Borders welcome any contributions of willingness to befriend and support, and host a data-base on their website of specific skills that people might have to offer eg teaching English, organising activities for men, women or children, fund-raising, outings support, needed donated items etc .
There is a newsletter, approximately monthly, to let people know what is happening currently in the way of outings and events being organised, awareness-raising films or presentations coming up.
If anyone is interested in being linked to the Beyond Borders network or joining in some of these activities, they can be contacted at info@beyondborderstotnes.org.uk