MIGRANT HELP IMPACT REPORT 2022-23
BUILDING ON THE PAST - The story of our founder, Helen Ellis MBE
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BUILDING RESILIENCE - Introduction from our chair of the board of trustees
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BUILDING MOMENTUM - Our services overview
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BUILDING AWARENSS - Campaigns and initiatives
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BUILDING NUMBERS - Some key statistics
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BUILDING TOGETHER - Co-production
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BUILDING INFLUENCE - Influencing positive change to policy and practice
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BUILDING TRUST - Asylum services
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BUILDING OUT - Outreach team
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BUILDING IN PROGRESS - Move On Support
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BUILDING CONNECTIONS - Partnerships for digital inclusion
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BUILDING SAFETY - Modern slavery
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BUILDING EVERYWHERE - The regions
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BUILDING THE DREAM - The story of Yordanis
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BUILDING NEW BEGINNINGS - Refugee resettlement
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BUILDING BRIDGES - EU Settlement Scheme
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BUILDING OPPORTUNITY - Hong Kong Welcome Programme
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BUILDING ENTERPRISE - Clear Voice
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REBUILDING TOGETHER - Closing words from our CEO
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BUILDING SUPPORT - How you can help
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THANKS
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The story of our founder, Helen Ellis MBE At the start of 2023, we marked the 60th anniversary of Migrant Help. From the organisation’s small beginnings, and the determination of our founder, Helen Ellis MBE, we are proud to have spent six decades striving to support people escaping war, persecution, violence and exploitation as they rebuild their stolen lives. We believe that everyone has a right to safety and an opportunity to thrive and recover from trauma. We will continue working to support those most in need, whether they are people seeking asylum in the UK, refugees or survivors of slavery and trafficking.
This report will tell you about the work that we have done this year to achieve these aims, bring services and support together and bridge community gaps. More importantly, it shares stories of the people at the heart of everything we do: the clients we work with.
Helen Ellis founded Migrant Help in 1963 under its original name, the Kent
Committee for the Welfare of Migrants. Her daughter, Margaret Hurst, talks about Helen’s life and memories of the charity’s earliest years: My mother was born in Switzerland in 1913, and came to England to learn English in the 1930s. Later she went to work at a children's home in Paris, where she made Jewish friends who, to her enduring distress, did not survive the war. She and my father Fred, a teacher, met while Mum was working for the Civil Service in England in the mid-1930s. They married in 1936. There is a photo of them when they were newly married. You can see that they were
really happy and so full of hope for the future. Their first child, Veronica, was born in 1940 in Folkestone. Mum described it as “an indescribable joy” and her “great consolation” when Fred was away at war for the next six years. Mum and Veronica were evacuated from Folkestone during the war: first to Wales, then Leeds, where my dad had family. It was a very tough time for her, but she took in a
German Jewish refugee called Tilly, through the Kindertransport scheme.
Tilly carried on with her education and moved to America after the war with her German Jewish husband, also a refugee. When the war ended, Mum went back to Folkestone, and Dad returned from Greece, where he was stationed, a while later. The war had taken a toll on them both. I was born in 1946, and in 1948 we moved to Limes Road (where the charity would later start life). Every summer we took in foreign English language students, so I would sleep on Dad’s army camp bed in the dining room. It was wonderful having all these young people coming from all over the place – France, Sweden, Italy. We had them because my mum loved the connection with other places in the world, and also as a way of paying for our education.
Immigration Officers at the port got to know of her and called when they had people who needed help. I remember her going to the phone, in a cupboard under the stairs, and getting a taxi to Folkestone or Dover harbours.
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The charity must have started in an itsy bitsy sort of way like that. By 1963, things had really started building up. The office used to be in our dining room. There were all sorts of people that my mother helped. Then they found her a room in Folkestone Harbour to work from. One year she decided to recycle Christmas cards to sell them to raise money. She must have sold huge numbers. She was a great cake-maker and I remember she gave the postmen cake as a thank you. In 1965 I moved away to university in London. Mum and I would often meet at Lyons
Corner House – she was coming up and down to London quite a bit for the charity. The work built up slowly: she was the sort of person who was able to take it in her stride. I can remember one young man who she helped to get refugee status, visiting him initially on a ship where they held migrants off Harwich, who would go and visit her every year. She helped him to find a job in London. She was really happy when she was able to help people settle.
People just utterly warmed to her. She was somebody who was respected, who got on with people, and who was empathetic. I think what people appreciated about my mother was the freedom she assumed people should have. She wanted her daughters to be independent: when I was just 12 she took me to Paris to introduce me to a French family, and then left me with them to learn French. There was that sense of freedom and an expanded world. Her uncle Heinrich and his wife had adopted an Armenian girl, and he wrote a book about Armenian refugees and migration, which made a big impression on her as a child. And coming to this country at a time where many people didn’t understand the difference between being Swiss, German and Swedish was quite challenging for her. I think her compassion for displaced people came naturally from those experiences. In 1967 she was awarded an MBE for her welfare work in Folkestone and Dover. She was so proud. It was a huge acknowledgement for her, as she wrote: “since then nobody regards me as a foreigner. I belong to country and people.” After Mum died, we scattered her ashes at sea, as she had wished, in sight of the White Cliffs of Dover.
“Since I love Switzerland and England to the same degree, I cannot be buried in either country. I therefore wish to be cremated so that the ashes can be strewn into the sea, which I love so dearly – with the hope that my soul will find acceptance in the eternal home of heaven.”
This was a turbulent and challenging year for refugees and people seeking asylum in the UK. The number of people fleeing war, persecution and terrorism who sought refuge in the UK totalled over 75,000, and a record number of nearly 17,000 people were identified as potential victims of modern slavery. Migrant Help is often the first – and repeated – contact point for many of them. Against this backdrop, the undeniable pressure on services like ours to cope and respond effectively became a race against time and resources. During 2022/2023 we helped more than 50,000 people with their asylum support applications, supported nearly 3,000 survivors of modern slavery and trafficking, assisted 32 refugee families to resettle in the UK and advised more than 4,000
people on the EU Settlement Scheme. Our free asylum helpline answered nearly 750,000 calls in more than 100
languages, an increase of 21 percent since 2021. To us, these are not just numbers, they are frightened, vulnerable people – every single one of whom has the right to seek protection, advice, and guidance.
From the young Ukrainian mother escaping with her children to the Sudanese men fleeing persecution; from the families from Syria and Afghanistan to the survivors of
modern slavery – these are all people who deserve to live a life of dignity and without fear, and we are here to help them rebuild their stolen lives. As this report shows, we don’t stop at initial support and guidance.
We stay with our clients, guiding them through the rest of their journey, and supporting them through the continuing challenges they face. Our aim is to identify and bridge gaps in services through partnership work and projects supported by our charitable funds. Key examples include the Youth Welfare Officer pilots in Birmingham and
London, a Community Hub in Bournemouth, and involving our clients through the Lived Experience Advisory Panels (LEAPs) to embed co-production across all our work.
The InPower Project, run by Clear Voice, financially supports unemployed refugees to train as interpreters. Our inspirational film about InPower was selected as a finalist at the
Charity Awards 2023.
We celebrate the 60th anniversary of Migrant Help in 2023, from its humble beginnings as the Kent Committee for the Welfare of Migrants to the largest charity
in the UK that works with refugees, people seeking asylum and survivors of modern slavery.
Thank you. Madhavi Vadera I would like to particularly commend the outstanding contribution of Caroline O’Connor’s leadership, the commitment and dynamism of the Senior Leadership team, the highly dedicated staff across the whole organisation, and the strategic direction of the Board of Trustees.
Madhavi Vadera Chair of The Board of Trustees
Funding from our Neil Wildman Children’s Fund was used to purchase the materials to start a mosaic project with clients at the Napier barracks accommodation in Folkestone. They created beautiful individual tiles, which have been pieced together to form a mosaic.
Art is an important means of improving wellbeing for our clients, and the artwork produced has also enhanced the physical surroundings that people find themselves in while waiting for updates on their asylum claims. Using some of our experts by experience from the Lived Experience Advisory
Panels (LEAPs) [see page 32], we also worked with the clients to identify other steps that could be taken to improve their living conditions. As a result of consultation and feedback, we were able to provide board games, table tennis and pool tables, a wheelbarrow to transport luggage, a variety of British films and DVDs and a music system.
past have been employed as doctors, dentists, journalist, chefs, hairdressers etc. and some feel like they aren’t able to use their skills when they come to the UK as they hoped, and this can be frustrating. But during the co-production project their education and experiences had been appreciated and admired.” Migrant Help staff member
“It was an amazing opportunity to work with Migrant Help staff. I learnt more about Migrant Help and the good work they do. The best part was when we consulted Napier residents about their thoughts/ideas about how to improve life in the accommodation. They felt really good. They felt listened to.’’ Expert by experience
Migrant Help was proud to work with Freewheel this year, supporting the Ride For
Freedom project. Freewheel by Ride For Freedom is a programme that empowers survivors – women,
children and men – of modern day slavery to cycle to support their physical and mental health and wellbeing, independence and mobility to aid their rehabilitation into society.
The West Midlands Hub launched in September 2022, the second to be rolled out in the UK. Around 30 survivors were given a bike and accessories, including helmets, locks and lights, and provided with cycling proficiency and road awareness training through the national cycle training programme, Bikeability. Ride For Freedom welcomes donations of bikes and accessories for its Freewheel programme that operates in London and the West Midlands. The two hubs were the first to be introduced, with plans to expand the project more widely across the UK in the near future.
Youth Welfare Officer Working with the charity Young Roots, our Youth Welfare Officer project supports young people aged 18-25 with their mental health and wellbeing as they navigate the asylum process. This group is often at high risk of suicide ideation and self-harm, so the project aims to be a support network for these young people, and help them to settle in the UK. This year we expanded the project into Croydon and King’s Cross through Young Roots, reaching more young people than ever before, providing support for a total of
226 young people. The project offered activities ranging from youth clubs to football tournaments, a residential week-long trip to Jamie’s Farm in Bath, kite-flying, canoeing and theatre visits. We also opened a grant application process for three new organisations outside of
London to join the programme in 2023.
Young people that the project has supported have said:
“The first time when I came to the UK everything was like the dark, I didn’t understand anything. Now I have help from you, I can ask you everything. I discuss with you what I can do.” “When I first come to London, I know no-one, but now I have five friends from different nationality… Playing pool with other people at the youth club reminds me of my happy childhood memory. Coming to Young Roots helps to improve my English because every time I attend I practise with others.” “I made some friends here, when we go to activities together and enjoy it. It makes me feel happier.” “I did not know it would be possible to get healthcare and now I do not feel pain. I can go on long walks, and feel I can do a lot.”
Community Hub In February we opened a new Community Hub in Bournemouth. Bringing together more than 10 local partners, the hub provides activities, support and learning opportunities for people seeking asylum each Monday, from a range of local organisations.
Numbers increased week on week with more clients being referred and making use of the range of advice on offer.
Migrant Help is part of the Coalition to Stop Slavery, an alliance of voluntary, community and statutory groups whose goal is to end modern slavery and human trafficking for good. We collaborated on an impactful campaign informing the general public about signs to look out for and how to report suspected modern slavery.
The campaign achieved:
around 1 in 10 of the British population
(and counting!)
to a petition
to the website (more than half of whom - 33,000 undertook Spot the Signs training - staying for an average length of time of 1’15” to understand the issue and learn what they can do about it).
See more at www.coalitiontostopslavery.org.
For Refugee Week in 2022, we commissioned an eye-catching series of
3D artworks telling the story of Eskander – a young man who had fled Ethiopia after his father and brother were murdered. His perilous journey by boat to Europe was dramatically depicted in the street
art, alongside a final piece showing Eskander running – now safe and settled in Belfast, and a medal-winning member of the Northern Ireland and Ulster athletics team. The art was displayed on London’s
Southbank, provoking conversations and engagement with the general public and
national media attention, as well as winning a Drum Social Purpose PR award.
We have also used other innovative external communications this year to highlight the humanity of the people that we work with. These have included working with three social media Influencers on an
Instagram campaign and our impactful ‘Missing’ poster project, depicting clients and the person or item that they missed the most from the home that they had been forced to leave behind.
We are determined to champion our clients in the media and to the general public, to
change perceptions and highlight the value that displaced people bring to the UK.
This year we continued to expand and embed the ethos of co-production into our activities. We believe that giving people with lived experience an equal role in designing, delivering and evaluating our services and influencing our wider activities is crucial.
The people who use our services are experts by experience, and their knowledge can and must be used to improve our provision. Over the next five years we are working towards becoming an organisation where: Even more staff and trustees see the value of co-production
We have a culture that works with experts by experience to influence our work
Experts by experience develop their skills, improve their wellbeing and meaningfully influence our work
Our work is improved and influenced by co-production Experts by experience’s views are shared to help influence external policy.
87 staff used co-production in their work 54 experts by experience were involved in co-produced activities
4 Lived Experience Advisory Panels (LEAPs) involving 49 experts were established, in our Asylum, Modern-Day Slavery Support and Resettlement services
52 service improvements were achieved, including setting up a volunteer conversational English befriending scheme, providing entertainment and leisure resources for residents at Napier Barracks and establishing links with vital services such as sexual health clinics in Scotland
20 suggestions from experts by experience were fed into external research including the Scottish Government’s review of their Trafficking and Exploitation Strategy, Home Office research on substantive interviews and a government spending review by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI).
“Designing a project with the co-production team has been
- working
with people who are using our services in equal partnership really opens your mind to ideas and possibilities you would have never thought of.” Staff member
“By being part of LEAP, even for a short time, I feel like there's so many skills that have been cultivated from it, and I know as time goes on
“Being a member of
the LEAP changed my mindset, from that of a victim to that of a survivor.
Influencing positive change to policy and practice In 2020, Migrant Help drafted a strategy that outlined the key aims of the organisation and the ways in which we would achieve those aims over the course of the next three years. It was developed to reflect the needs of our clients and would enable us to address those needs in the best way possible. As an organisation, we recognised that some of those needs would require us to use our experience, expertise and national charity status to become more influential in discussions around legislation and policy implementation. Out of this recognition came our strategic objective of ‘influencing positive change
to policy and practice’. Part of this objective includes being ‘a trusted source of information’ in our field. So while we continue to develop working relationships amongst sector partners and government representatives, we have decided to focus on using our years of accumulated
knowledge to make positive change in the areas of policy and practice. We established an organisational policy function in October 2022 with the aim to use our resources and expertise to advise on matters of public policy, and challenge legislation which would be detrimental to those we support.
We have incorporated our organisational value of partnership into our policy function by working with sector partners and those with lived experience. And, we are ongoing participants in longitudinal research being conducted by IPSOS which looks at the impact of the Government’s differentiation policy first outlined in the 2021 New Plan for Immigration, which came into force in the
Nationality and Borders Act 2022. This research study will use evidence and interviews over the next two years. Since 2021 and the New Plan for Immigration, legislation has moved at lightning speed. Parts of both the Nationality and Borders Act and the Illegal Migration Act are undergoing legal challenges. It is clear that by adding our voice to the conversation we can best address the needs of our clients.
Asylum services When people are forced to flee, leaving behind their homes and everything they know, they are often doing so after facing extreme violence like wars and other terrifying conflicts. Or they might be escaping persecution based on their beliefs, gender, sexuality, identity or politics. Migrant Help is there, as we have been for the last 60 years, to welcome these brave displaced people as they arrive in the UK to start to rebuild the lives that have been stolen from them. We assist them by providing advice in how to find somewhere to live, access support that they are entitled to and help in understanding the asylum system. Throughout the long process we are there for our clients, regardless of their individual outcomes, and are proud to be at their side. This year we supported increased numbers of clients in many areas of our work. There has been an 11% increase in those in initial and contingency accommodation, and a 13% increase in people needing help to complete asylum support forms. We also continue to help increasing numbers of clients to submit applications for other form of support, such as Section 4 support for those whose asylum claim has been refused and Section 98 temporary support for people seeking asylum who appear to be destitute in increasing numbers.
We provide impartial advice on: How to claim asylum The asylum process What kinds of support are available (and how to access them) And people’s rights and responsibilities whilst within the asylum process This year we have provided nearly 400,000 individual pieces of advice and guidance – around 120% more than last year. We work hard to provide an accessible, reliable single point of contact for clients who wish to raise and report issues with their provision, accommodation, payment or status. We have sought to address the increased demands by implementing new systems, improving training, prioritising quality assurance and complaint handling and
expanding our team. We are also working hard to promote and improve our alternative contact channels to further reduce telephone waiting times.
“On behalf of myself and my family we thank you for looking after us" “I wanted to reach out to express my sincerest gratitude for all the support and guidance you have provided me during my time of desperation. Your guidance and attention to my case were invaluable, and I will forever be grateful to you for that.” “I was very satisfied with how fast to my email this service responded. Happy to feel I am being treated like a human being”
Outreach team We offer specialist support and advice, by appointment, to our most vulnerable clients via our Outreach team. This year we were delighted to be able to expand our face-to-face provision, helping more people than ever. Working closely with the Safeguarding team to make sure the support that we provide for people with specific needs is appropriate, we conducted more than 8,000 outreach appointments this year.
Aadila is a pregnant client who wanted to relocate closer to her family members. We talked her through the process of requesting to move whilst still in initial accommodation and helped her to assemble the necessary documents to support her request, resolving further issues with food in her accommodation and questions around payments. The adviser also made sure the client
“Thank you very much. You respect me, you listen to me, you are patient and give only positivity.”
was registered with her GP and receiving appropriate prenatal support and helped her to understand maternity payment for which she would be eligible.
Bomani who was at risk of experiencing modern slavery. They were helped to request
an asylum screening
appointment and to apply for emergency accommodation. Bomani is now safe, and happy in their new accommodation.
Move On Support Once a client has received a decision on their asylum claim, our support does not simply end. Our Move On providers go above and beyond to make sure people are well-prepared for the next steps they need to take, whether they have received a positive or negative decision on their claim. We supported nearly 20% more clients this year with Move On support and advice compared to last year, including 7033 people with positive decisions on their asylum claims, and 1217 people whose claims were denied.
“My adviser was kind and caring, made me feel like I belong, and it is OK for me to live here. I was scared of becoming homeless with nowhere to go or no money to live for my family. I googled some stuff and lots of different information came up for me and it was not clear for me which one I had to phone. They told me where to go and how to get the support I needed which I am grateful for.”
Partnerships for digital inclusion All too many refugees, people seeking asylum and survivors of trafficking and modern slavery face digital exclusion. This makes it difficult for them to access all kinds of support, including public health information, GP or legal appointments, advice on schooling, information and maps for their local areas and more. People miss out on the all-important need to
contact family and friends through calls and messaging services. The digital divide also has an impact on our clients’ levels of competency in digital technology, putting people at a further disadvantage. This year we have been very fortunate and formed supportive partnerships with organisations such as Virgin Media O2, Hubbub, BT, Vodafone and
SocialBox.biz to begin to bridge this divide. Thanks to these generous donations of devices and access to data, we have been able to transform the lives of many of our clients, helping them reconnect with families, friends, communities and their new lives.
Clients like this 20-year-old man: “I was so happy to receive a phone and have connection again I used it all the time and lent it to someone in my accommodation to help them. Then one day the phone was lost. I was really destroyed. With the phone I was able to speak to my family and friends. I was learning English so I could progress here in the UK and give back to my community. I was able to make appointments, volunteer weekly and have counselling sessions. Losing the phone affected my mental health. I sat out in the cold all night in a park as I didn’t see the point of living. I had lost all my contacts and could not communicate with my mum or had any way of getting her details. The staff were very helpful and took me back to the accommodation safely. They helped me to get a new phone and I can look to the future. I’m trying to recover my family’s details so I can communicate with them back home. I can’t thank you enough.
You have enabled me to smile. You gave my smile back.”
And this young woman: “I couldn’t be referred to a lawyer until I had access to a mobile phone. I couldn’t call the charities who were helping me as I only had access to a phone in the hotel I was staying in and didn’t want to discuss my personal trauma in front of other people. Me and my brothers were separated back in Yemen in 2017 when we were only 14 and 15 years old. Our parents were killed in Sudan. We set out on a journey to Europe together and we ended up being separated. I hadn’t heard from my brother since. I heard from someone that my brother was in London, so I tried to get to the UK. When I got the phone, I was able to connect to the local community and spoke to many people and eventually tracked my brother down where he was living in foster care after making it to the UK in 2019.
I would not have been able to find him without the phone and data. I moved to an accommodation closer to my brother and use my phone and data to keep in contact with him. We have been able to meet up and reunite after many
years, I thank you for the phone, if it wasn’t for the phone, I wouldn’t have found out my brother is alive here in the UK.”
Partnerships such as this are key to our mission to help our clients rebuild their stolen lives. Together, we believe that we can build brighter futures for those less fortunate than us. See page 80 for other ways that you can support our work.
Modern slavery Sadly, in the 21st century, slavery is not something that has been consigned to the history books. It is believed that around 50 million people are still being enslaved, in countries around the world (including here in the UK) and in many different ways. From children forced into labour, people trafficked for sexual purposes and other inhuman and criminal forms of subjugation and exploitation, this is a traumatic and often horrific experience for anyone who has been ensnared.
We are determined to provide sensitive, detailed and empowering support to our clients who have survived modern slavery. We signpost people to get the help they need, whether it is mental health support, legal advice, explanation of their entitlements or suitable accommodation where they can, finally, feel safe. This year we have provided this service, and support, to 2,710 people across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, including UK nationals. We will continue to work closely with these brave and resilient survivors, to help them rebuild their stolen lives.
England Under our contract with The Salvation Army to provide support in England, we have dedicated teams in London, the West Midlands, Dover and Oxford. This year they supported a total of 1,661 clients, and 436 of their dependants to overcome the trauma caused by modern slavery. Our clients came from all around the world, encompassing 81 different nationalities. We shared our expertise and learned from others in the sector at the Modern Slavery
and Human Trafficking conference in March, in the Southend Against Modern Slavery partnership and as part of the Oxford anti-slavery multi-agency response team, among others. Providing close one-to-on support for our clients allows us to identify gaps in provision and spot needs that we are then able to meet – a highlight for us all of the work we do. Being able to offer mobile phones and laptops to clients has made a significant
impact on their lives and wellbeing. We were also able to provide necessities for babies, and amazing Christmas
gifts to our clients’ children thanks to the Baby Banks that we work with, and we were also able to secure musical instruments to give to clients in our accommodation service. We are now going to arrange music classes for those who would like to learn.
Georgina, a dependent drug user, was referred to the service after her housing was
cuckooed* and she and her partner were forced into slavery. Over the past two years, with our support, she has grown and worked incredibly
hard to bring her life back to normality. Now with a three-month-old daughter, she has been discharged from the drug support service and has engaged well with the police regarding her case.
“Myself and my partner fell into hard time with life in general. Having Sylvie from Migrant Help as our support worker made us feel safe and gave us time. She helped us through it with understanding and transparency. I'm deeply grateful that she is still supporting my partner. I like to thank you all for all the help. You do a cracking job.” *cuckooing: the practice of taking over the home of a vulnerable person in order to establish a base for illegal drug dealing, typically as part of a county lines operation
Scotland With new members of staff recruited, to meet the increased number of referrals, our close-knit team is better equipped to deliver a high-quality service for our clients. Our new Move On Specialist and Activities Coordinator enabled us to go further than ever in providing meaningful extras to enhance our clients’ lives. These included a music therapy project, a bus tour around Glasgow and a gardening project, all of which have proved key in improving wellbeing. This year we have supported 539 new clients – an increase of 90 from the previous year. In all, 734 clients accessed our support. The range of exploitation that people had experienced included everything from domestic servitude, sexual exploitation (with a noticeable increase in young men in this category), forced marriage and criminal exploitation, with labour
exploitation remaining the most common.
The most common nationality for people that we supported this year was Vietnamese, but we have people from 56 different countries using our services, including 16 British nationals. “Eric is a young man who was sexually abused in the earlier part of his life, and had gone on to be exploited by modern slavery in his adulthood, being forced to work for almost no pay. Upon entering the service, his behaviour presented immediate challenges, so we put a behavioural agreement into place, maintaining good relations and helping him in making small steps towards recovery. Although things spiralled out of control, with his trauma manifesting in violence and threats, we did not remove support from Eric, remaining committed to doing everything possible to help him rebuild a life for himself. And so, we continued to provide Eric with outreach support, even when he was arrested and detained for some time while under the service’s care. We linked Eric with support to help him get on top of his issues, including his mental health and this really began to make a difference. Upon his release from detention, we linked him with an accommodation provider and local mental health teams. All of this led to a dramatic change of circumstances in Eric’s life, and it is fair to say that he is now thriving. The stability of accommodation and the provision of ongoing mental health support had a transformative effect on Eric’s mental health, and thus, in turn, on his behaviour. Now, he continues to engage with mental health services, whilst at the same time volunteering and studying at college. He continues to rebuild his life day by day.”
Northern Ireland The service had so many highlights this year. One was the involvement of several of our clients in the Belfast Mela Festival in August, with two talented musicians performing at St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast. Our clients also helped to organise, prepare and deliver a wonderful Eritrean dining and musical experience which was the first of its kind in Belfast, and sold out. Our partnerships enable clients to meet people outside of their immediate community group, supporting both their integration into life in Northern Ireland, and their
mental wellbeing. This included sports projects from archery and cycling to football, arts events like
drumming and classical music programmes, and opportunities for learning and employment with CV preparation help, catering training, and even community interpreting. We have provided support and advice to 551 people this year, 315 of whom were new to our service. The people that we supported came from more than 20 different
countries, from Eritrea to Sudan, East Timor to China, the Czech Republic to Vietnam.
Yordanis: “I’m 25 years old. I was born in Eritrea but I was raised in Ethiopia. My parents died, so I was raised by my auntie. My auntie’s son was a DJ, so there was always music in our household. That’s what inspired me. I loved Eritrean and Ethiopian music.
When I became a DJ it was exciting performing with big African and European artists. There were many highlights. Playing to a big crowd, I would feel a mixture of excitement and nerves. I loved thinking that I could give people pleasure and enjoyment by listening to my music. I would focus on that while I was playing.
One highlight of my career was playing a huge venue in the downtown area of Ethiopia supporting Teddy Afro, one of Ethiopia’s most famous and influential singers. I performed in front of more than 60,000 people that night. I supported other big stars like Rihanna, Drake and Major Lazer. I didn’t have very much direct contact with Rihanna though! My journey to Northern Ireland took me from Ethiopia to Sudan, then to Turkey, then Greece, Romania, Germany and France before arriving in Belfast. I have been in Belfast about a year now. Migrant Help’s Belfast team contacted me, and they have been supporting me since I arrived. Recently they gave me a new laptop [via digital inclusion project – SocialBox.Biz] which will be much better for my performance when I am DJing. I am starting to DJ in Belfast and loving getting back into it. I played with DJ Michael Krest – one of Belfast’s leading DJs – at Fountain Lane in May, and two of my friends from Migrant Help came and danced along too! For the future, I want to get training, and study on a course to improve my DJing. I came from Eritrea where we have a different culture, but I am experiencing new things here in Northern Ireland, and starting to understand this culture.”
“Our role is to help our clients to develop the knowledge, tools and confidence they need to have control over their own lives. We are their representatives, their teachers, their listening ears and sometimes their friends.” Hannah Karim Regional Resettlement Manager
Refugee resettlement This team assists those coming to the UK under an official resettlement scheme. Our resettlement team works with refugees in Kent to make sure that they, and their families, are able to make informed use of the services that are available to them, from education and healthcare to employment support and more. We also make sure that anyone needing extra help, because of the trauma that they have undergone, is referred to the appropriate specialists. We think everyone deserves to feel safe, supported and welcomed into their new life, especially after the traumatic experiences in their past. This year the team provided ongoing support as needed to 32 families (154 people in total).
EU Settlement Scheme Under the EU Settlement Scheme, we support citizens of the European Union who qualify for settled status in the UK. The service continues to be in demand, with 4,197 clients being supported this year, and 354 applications for settled status submitted on their behalf. We have consistently been one of the highest performing organisations offering this support, and are delighted to have been able to work together with many partner organisations to make a big difference to often vulnerable people’s lives.
“I have flown home to Switzerland for the holidays. I will return to the UK with Settled Status. I received the confirmation email a few days ago. Relief, elation and gratitude are things I'm feeling. I'd like very much to thank both of you for all your support. You were so good when I was desperate in June, after being detained at the airport, you were able to help me with all my questions. Migrant Help jumped in at five minutes to midnight, calling me on Swiss and English phones and uploading all my evidence for me the day after. I'm super, super grateful for the work you have put in to support me and really appreciate your patience with a very stressful and anxiety-inducing issue for me.”
Hong Kong Welcome Programme We provide support and advice to Hong Kong British Nationals (Overseas) – BNOs – who have settled in the UK. This includes education, training and employment
opportunities, supporting people to feel confident and prepared in their new lives in this country. Working one-to-one with our clients, this year we continued to look at practical solutions based on their individual preferences and needs, signposting them to English language courses and groups, social events to help them integrate into their local communities, and support services for mental and physical health. We have grown our network more in order to provide localised support to our clients, working with a wide range of organisations including schools, surgeries,
faith groups, leisure centres and voluntary organisations. We offered 10 employability workshops across the UK to a total of
144 people, with an extra 25 people attending a five-week employability course with Sutton Volunteer Centre.
This year, we are pleased to have helped: find employment access training and education to whom we provided funding to access courses (where no alternative funding was available)
through a combination of face-to-face support and in-person and online workshops.
Wing completed all six sessions of our service. We told him about a job fair in his local area, which he attended, resulting in several job interviews from companies that he met there. He used interview techniques that he had learned in our sessions to tackle a telephone interview, which led to a second interview and then a job offer as an IT help desk engineer. He was pleased to be able to start working and begin his new life in the UK. He is hoping that once his income is stable, he can start looking to buy a house with his girlfriend.
Clear Voice Clear Voice is a social enterprise that provides interpreting and translation services. It gift aids all of its profits to Migrant Help to support our work in projects and the community. Clear Voice’s net profit for 2022/23 was £2.29m, meaning it donated more than ever to support Migrant Help’s work. It grew its income to £9.4m. This was a 38% year-on-year increase and 6.2%
more than the budgeted £8.9m This year, Clear Voice achieved over £1m in monthly income for the first time Clear Voice interpreters delivered over one million minutes of telephone
interpreting per month consistently over three quarters of the year The InPower Project continued to support unemployed refugees by fully funding their training as professional interpreters. In the past year, Clear Voice funded 44 individuals through their Level 3 Community Interpreting qualification Our short film about the InPower Project was viewed over 12,000 times on YouTube and selected as a finalist at the Charity Film Awards 2023 2022/3 saw the first ever Clear Voice Language Inclusivity Grant – offering up to
£2,500 in pro bono translation and interpreting services to charities, social enterprises and other non-profits
This year, 621 interpreters were recruited – that’s over 32% more than last year!
Anida Rexha, a Clear Voice interpreter from Albania: “Initially my family and friends would ask me to interpret for them. I thought becoming an interpreter was a good idea to take advantage of my knowledge, ability and skills as a multilingual person.
I enjoy the feeling of usefulness to others. You act as the voice between two voiceless ends. Working for Clear Voice has many advantages, but the main ones have been the experience you gain with time, helping you self-improve in so many aspects, and the feeling of respect that comes after each and every conversation with Clear Voice’s advisers, operators and recruiters. They treat every case you present with kindness and professionalism. A world without communication would be disastrous – communication is fundamental for a society to exist and progress. Our role as interpreters helps people be citizens of the world and not just as a country.”
Some personal words from our CEO, Caroline At Migrant Help, we continued to see rapid growth across all services in 2022/2023. Our work is so closely tied to world events and the global picture was profoundly unsettled this past year. While the Russian invasion of Ukraine forced displacement of people from escalating threats in their homeland and was in the news every day, the same reality was echoed over and over again in countries throughout the world, in places like Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and South Sudan, where such aggression has been a reality for years and even decades. With some 32 million global refugees who have fled their native countries, and more than 100 million counting those who are also internally displaced, home feels a far less secure place than ever before.
These numbers represent a staggering 13 million additional refugees from the year before. At the same time, we saw politics shifting, both here and around the world, with significant moves both to the left and to the right. Coupled with tensions escalating between powerhouse nations, the risk of global conflict feels closer than it has in decades. We witnessed unprecedented protests against regimes for their treatment of women, which quickly spread through social media. Demonstrations following the arrest and death of Jina “Mahsa” Amini in Iran, against the loss of the right to secondary education for girls in Afghanistan under the resurgent Taliban leadership and by the women in Tigray recounting stories of sexual
attacks used as a deliberate strategy of terror marked watershed moments in these countries. The internet allowed people everywhere to better understand why some countries are not safe and why there is a desperate humanitarian need to help asylum seekers, refugees and survivors of modern slavery. The pandemic, world events, cataclysmic climatic events and a plundering of tragedy for profits triggered an economic downturn that has hurt our clients, our staff, our supporters and our sector. Many faced the prospect of trying to do more with less on a daily basis and we wanted to step in and help fill some of those gaps. We launched several strategic initiatives during the year, providing funding to existing
community groups and launching new hubs, expanding our successful Youth Welfare Officer pilot, creating age dispute and disability adviser projects, supporting greater access to the National Referral Mechanism and commencing a new project with The Happy Baby Community. We built excellent partnerships, and are so grateful for the support of Virgin Media/O2, BT, Vodafone, SocialBox.biz and Hubbub to source phones, devices and data for our clients, who face huge disadvantages due to digital exclusion. We collaborated closely with amazing charity partners like Young Roots, Welsh Refugee Council, Refuweegee, Causeway (previously City Hearts) and so many more. Within our contractual work, we have established strong relationships with local authorities, commissioners,
contractors and suppliers, working to find more ways that we can serve our clients better.
and still have family living in countries facing war, discrimination and turmoil.
One special highlight of the past year was the expansion of our Lived Experience Advisory Panels, made up of people using our services.
For all of us, what we do is a personal and passionate cause.
We engaged with clients in equal partnership to co-produce services that deliver better-directed outcomes, create quality frameworks, recruit staff and feed into government consultations, amplifying the crucial voice of the people most deeply affected by government policy. We have grown significantly in the past year, matching the increase in demand across all services. Our staff are a wonderful, diverse mix of compassionate professionals dedicated to equality and human rights. Many have come to the UK as migrants
Our staff understand that the work can be difficult, that every interaction with a client matters enormously, that politics and public sentiment don’t always feel like they are on our side, and that without the contribution of each and every one of us, Migrant Help would be less than our clients need and deserve us to be. Thanks, Caroline
Here at Migrant Help, we exist to protect people affected by displacement and exploitation, helping them thrive as individuals and recover from their trauma. In everything we do - whether it’s providing services to people seeking asylum, assisting survivors of slavery and human trafficking, or supporting refugees in resettling in the UK we are helping to rebuild the stolen lives of our clients. In this report, you have seen just some of the stories that lie behind the numbers.
Together, we can build brighter futures for those less fortunate than us.
Please help Here are just some of the ways that you can support our work and make a real difference to people affected by displacement and exploitation:
Quick and easy – DONATE NOW and help provide essentials for those in crisis
Corporate support – our corporate partners are passionate in their support to help us raise vital funds
Philanthropy, charitable trusts and foundations – support our vision for a global society that protects survivors of exploitation and displacement, treats them with respect and enables them to thrive as individuals
Disability inclusion – help us to lift barriers for the increasing number of refugees and people seeking asylum with disabilities
Modern slavery – help us to continue supporting survivors of trafficking and modern slavery
Mental health support – our clients are at high risk of experiencing poor mental health, you can help us to help them
If you would like to support us in any way, please email
fundraising@migranthelpuk.org
Ace Workplace Learning
Calico
Freedom from Torture
Action Foundation
Cambridge Ethnic Community Forum
GAMH
Anchor
Causeway
GlasGo Cabs
Ashurst Law Firm
Central and West Integration Network
Glasgow City Mission
Aston Villa FC
CHAWREC
Global Link
Assured IT Solutions
Clear Voice
Goldstone
Asylum Welcome
Community Welcome CIC
Govan Community Project
B&DASS
Connect Assist
GYROS
B4B
Conversation Corner
Happy Baby Community
Baby Bank Hertfordshire (Cathy Bove)
Coventry City Council Migration Team
Harbour Project
Baby Bank Oxford
Cowshed
Healing for the Heart
Baby Bank Sebbys Corner
Cranhill Development Trust
Helen Bamber Foundation
Baby Bank Windsor
Crisis Counselling
Herts Welcomes Refugees
Baby Basics Dover
Crookston Community Group
Hestia
Baby Bank Maidenhead and Windsor
Dave R Adams Electrical Services Ltd
Hope at Home
Barnardo’s BOLOH
DISCOVERY (Sussex Police)
Hope & May
BCAT
Doctors of the World
HSBC (Ewelina Kuster, Sylwia
BCHA
Dover Big Local
Debowska and Bahja Mohamed)
BDO LLP
Dover Pantry
Hubbub
Bikes For Refugees Scotland
DPIA
Human Appeal
Birch Network
Duncan Lewis solicitors
Independent Commission for
Birmingham City Council
(Rhiannon Croker)
Aid Impact (ICAI)
Digital Inclusion Team
Edgbaston Cricket Club
Inspire Project
Birmingham for Ukraine
Emmaus Dover
International Care Network
Black Country Women’s Aid
Entraid
Bournemouth
Bramber Bake House
Epping Forest Foodbank
Islamic Relief
Breakwater IT
Evesham Vale Welcomes Refugees
ISS Produce
BrightWork Recruitment
Evotix
Institute of Migration (IOM)
British Red Cross
Experian
JCT – Joining Communities Together
British Telecoms
FareShare
Journey LGBT Asylum Group
Brushstrokes
Fear Free
Justice and Care
Bryson Intercultural
Forward Trust, Dover and Folkestone
JustRight Scotland
Buzzacott
Hub
Kent Handyman Services
KLIVE
Reed in Partnership
Stoneseed
KRAN – Kent Refugee Action Network
Refuge (Qiuling Liu)
Survivors of Human Trafficking
Let’s Feed Brum
Refugee Action
in Scotland (SOHTIS)
Lifelines International
Refugee Council
Sky UK
Maslow
Refugee Resource
23red
Medaille Trust
Refuture Collective
The Active Wellbeing Society
Merry-Go-Round Glasgow
Refuweegee
Birmingham
MicroRainbow
Renfrewshire Cab Co
The Bike Project
Mind Birmingham
RMC
The Bloomers Trust
Napier Friends
Rugby Community Development
The Flying Seagull Project
MK Storehouse
Salvation Army
The Gatehouse
National Human Trafficking Unit
SAMS (Southend Against Modern
The Links Project East Sussex
Near Neighbours
Slavery) Partnership
Travellers’ Tree
New Citizens Gateway
Sarah Rees Counselling
Turpin Miller Solicitors
New Routes Norwich
Scorebuddy
Undisclosed hotels that we have used
Newham Nurture Programme
Scottish Government (Human
Unseen
NOAH Enterprise Luton
Trafficking Team)
Victim Support
Nordoff Robbins
Scottish Guardianship Service
Virgin Media/O2
Norfolk Council
Sewing2Gether
Vodaphone
North of England Refugee Service
Shropshire Supports Refugees
Warwickshire Council Migration Team
(NERS)
Simon Community
Wavenet Limited
NQA
Smallsteps in Cowley (Charlotte
Wavesearch Recruitment
Oasis Cardiff
and Leanne)
WEA
Office & Educational Furniture Limited
Snowdrop Project
Welcome Churches
OfficeTest
Socialbox
Welsh Refugee Council
Open Round - Southend
Soothing Stitches
Westfield Group
Outreach: all referral partners
Sophie Hayes Foundation
Wirral Change
People in Motion
South Hill Centre (Jeremey)
Wolverhampton Wanderers FC
Police Scotland
Southend Action Centre
Worcester City Welcomes Refugees
Principal Dwellings
Sport in Mind
Wyre Forest Supports Asylum Seekers
RAMH
St Chad’s Sanctuary
YCSA
Reading Refugee Service
STAR
Young Roots
Red Cross
Street Soccer
Zenith Media International
Registered Charity (England and Wales): 1088631 Registered Charity (Scotland): SC041022 Company No (England and Wales): 4172880 Copyright © 2023 Migrant Help. All rights reserved.
www.migranthelpuk.org
|
info@migranthelpuk.org
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01304 203 977
Registered address: Migrant Help, 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX