UNHCR starts screening of refugees entitled to family reunion

Refugees at Mae La Refugee camp on the Thai Burma border with relatives resettled I third countries are about to be screened by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Thailand to see if they are eligible to be resettled.

It is estimated that there are as many as 52,000 people living at the Mae La refugee camp that is located in the Tha Song Yang District of Thailand’s Tak Province. Many refugees have family member who have been resettled to a third country. Read more

Red Cross Report on Family Reunion

Report on the importance of family reunion services and provision in the UK.

Read the full report here

"Family important for wider societal wellbeing and separation can affect integration
– UNHCR resettlement handbook: “[Family separation] may
also create serious obstacles to a refugee’s integration in a
new country, and the realization of family unity is considered
an important aspect of all durable solutions”."

Refugee Week: Family Reunion

A Family Reunion

P and her family are recognised refugees in the UK. P instructed Brighton Housing Trust to assist  her in making an application for her mother who had a serious eye condition to join the family in the UK.... Read more here

http://andywinterbht.wordpress.com/2012/06/22/refugee-week-family-reunion/

Hungarian refugee waits 56 years to see his family after fleeing to the United States

Though they were apart for 56 years, Molnar and his family quickly made up for lost time...

http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/the_intelligencer_news/a-family-reunion-years-in-the-making/article_7b81c890-3693-5935-ae30-2610fe726528.html

Read the full Red Cross report online here

http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4f9fcc602.html

Thankyou very much to the Interact Club at the Heathcote School in Hertfordshire for the £178.62 they raised through having a non uniform day and a bake sale.

Red Cross report on family reunion

Last year we were interviewed for some research the Red Cross was doing and they have now completed the report with their findings.

Some of the key issues were found to be that refugees struggled to get information or support with applying for family reunion. That funding the documentation needed as well as the travel for successful applicants meant that people would go without food to save up or had been borrowing from people who subsequently threatened their family when they couldn't pay.

I wouldn't have been able to pay. I had no place to sleep, nothing to eat so I could not pay the bill of a solicitor.... The people in a refugee situation, they cannot afford to pay a lawyer's bill.

You can read our summary of the report on our website here and we hope to be able to bring you a copy of the full report. Our thanks to the Red Cross for allowing us to reproduce their findings.

Nominate us for support through your local supermarket

You can now nominate us to get the support of a local ASDA or Waitrose store

For ASDA you can make a nomination online to get support from our local store (Rawtenstall) or yours. Just follow this link http://storelocator.asda.com/store/rawtenstall and scroll down to the 'You Choose' option on the right hand side of the page.

To make a nomination to Waitrose you can pick up a form in store - it will only take you a minute and could help us make a real difference.

Thankyou

Want to help to reunite a refugee family?

Last year a team running in the Manchester 10k raised over £1400 for refugee families and we hope that we can do even better this year.

You can read more about the difference this money makes on our website.

If a triathlon seems a bit ambitious don't worry. You can choose from a sprint or super sprint distance or even get together a team of three and do it as a relay.

Super Sprint: 200 metre Swim - 20 km Cycle - 2.5 km Run

Sprint: 500 metre Swim - 20 km Cycle - 5 km Run

Relay: 500 metre Swim - 20km Cycle - 5K Run (One competitor for each leg!)

You can get more information and sign up online or by post here:http://www.fun2tri.co.uk/cheshire/index.htm

Create your online fundraising page here: http://www.bmycharity.com/charities/rwt ordownload a sponsorship form from our website.

If you have any questions you can contact us and we will be happy to help if we can.

Hear from a corporate donor

We have been making donations to the Refugee Welcome Trust over the last year. This was our first significant involvement in corporate giving and we have found the whole experience to be rewarding and worthwhile. As a young company we appreciated the issues facing a new organisation setting itself up in the current financial climate and were happy to support this young charity.

One of the aspects of the work of the Refugee Welcome Trust that appealed to us was their simple and cost efficient way of working. This resonated with our own business practices and we were happy knowing our donation would go directly to the cause and that we were not supporting the administration of the charity itself.

Following our donations we were informed personally about the beneficiaries and the impact of the money we had contributed. In each instance we were able to understand about the family we had helped and in the months after the donation we were kept up to date with their progress and news. This ongoing personal relationship really helped us to feel that our contribution was appreciated, had made a difference and that our money had been well spent.

Andrew Camilleri

FreshStart Living

More about how your company can help 

Concern over Legal Aid for Family Reunion Immigration Cases

Bishop Patrick Lynch, Chair of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales Office of Migration and Refugee Policy, expressed further concerns around the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, regarding victims of human trafficking and those involved in family reunion immigration cases, who he emphasised were “at risk of losing fundamental and potentially irreplaceable support.”


Read the full article here

New Year Family Reunion

Happy New Year. Over the christmas period we were able to bring two young boys to the UK to join their father. Sadly their sisters are still appealing their negative visa decision and were unable to travel with their brothers. We hope that they get better news this year. 

If you would like to contribute to their case and that of others you can now donate by text: Text a donation: Simply text 'RWTD12' and the amount to 70070. Donations can be made of £1, £2, £3, £4, £5 or £10 and there will be an opportunity for you to add Gift Aid