Hello everyone,
Here are the latest updates and news from WFMA for the summer months of June and July.
Below you will find news about recruitment (very important – please spread the word!), some updates from the Support Centre from Mel, and some news / reflections in response to the new government.
As ever, if there’s anything you’d like to be included in the next newsletter, or that you would like me to send to our supporters urgently, please contact me at [email protected]. I want this newsletter to be a helpful resource for members of the community, so appreciate feedback and input.
In solidarity,
Joseph
WFMA Updates
Recruitment – Campaigns and Communications Manager
WFMA is recruiting a new Communications and Campaigns Manager.
The Communications and Campaigns Manager will play an important role in raising awareness of the issues facing the communities we support through communications with WFMA’s supporters, social media and the press, stakeholders and through wider campaigning and organising. The role also offers an exciting chance to collaborate with other organisations and frontline services in London and further afield on the relevant issues.
The post will be:
- 10 hours per week remotely, with the ability to work your contracted hours flexibly.
- Duration: 12 months (with the possibility of another year subject to
- funding);
- Salary: £31,745 pro rata (£8,580 per annum), funded by a grant from the City Bridge Foundation.
You can view the full job advert – as well as the job description, personal specification, and application form – on our website. Please share in your community and activists networks and give a nudge to anyone you think would be suited to the role!
We welcome applicants with lived experience of migration/forced migration, as well as members of our local community from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds and those with experience of campaigning on migration and border issues.
The deadline to apply for the role is 12pm on 17 August 2024 latest. CVs will not be accepted. If you have any questions in the meantime, please email [email protected].
New trustees still needed
We are still recruiting for a number of voluntary trustee positions.
We are looking for trustees who share our values and have the time and energy to help us build our charity.
We are keen to find someone with experience as a treasurer / bookkeeper, as well as people with skills in grant applications and human resources. But whether you are an experienced trustee or new to the role, we’d like to hear from you.
Please share the job advert in your networks – and apply if you think you’re right for the role!
Support Centre
Opening times
The Support Centre is open between 10am and 12:30pm every Friday in Blackhorse Road Baptist Church (65 Blackhorse Rd, London E17 7AS), reached through the gate on the corner of Blackhorse Road and Southcote Road, through the glass doors and up the stairs in front of you.
Please note, however, that the Support Centre will be closed on Friday 9 August 2024.
Support Centre report
Our Support Centre Manager has compiled and analysed the following data about the work WFMA and its volunteers have been doing and the communities we are supporting.
From March to May 2024 we had 141 visits from 104 visitors from 42 nationalities. The average monthly number of contacts was 47. This is down slightly as we have been trialling imposing a cap on the number of visitors we see each in order to have time for quality advice and not wildly overrunning our advertised centre time of 10.00am-12.30pm. We make Wednesday appointments for visitors who require a dedicated period of time for specific work such as form filling, applications or fee waivers. 
In June 2024 we had 47 visits from 37 visitors from 18 nationalities. This time the ratio of male to female visitors has swung back towards male visitors: males (53%) to females (47%).
The average monthly number of contacts was 47 as with the previous three months. Although we only guarantee to see the first 8 visitors, we see 12 or 13 people each week. We have got better at finishing on time so the new layout/procedures seem to have made efficiency savings.
It is notable that we have a change in split of the primary reasons for visitors coming with immigration still the main reason but for the first time, immigration cases make up less than 50% of cases are evenly split.
Volunteers
The Pro Bono Community Charity have just provided two more volunteers who are due to start in the next couple of weeks and they will bring Urdu, Bangla and Hindi languages with them. We have also had a number of new people approach us to become volunteers.
Someone from Waltham Forest Council’s Community Hub joined us two weeks ago with three of her volunteers, two of whom are interested in volunteering with us, bringing Arabic, Farsi and Dari languages with them. Mel also attended a training session held for her the Community Hub’s volunteers on housing. There is an offer to re-run it in September for our volunteers. We are working more closely with the Council Community Hub referring people to them and they to us.
Casework Solidarity Forum
Mel and I attended the first Casework Solidarity Framework conference hosted by Haringey Migrant Support Centre on 27 June. It was a full day conference bringing together different frontline organisations from all over the UK from Scotland to Bristol to Southampton – a full list of the organisations who attended can be found here.
There were several break-out sessions which were really interesting dialogues and sharing experiences of trying to help migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, the barriers to getting to
the right help, etc. The aim is to continue building this network and talking about visitor-led campaigning and both Mel and Joseph felt that it is important that WFMA is part of this to develop contacts, collaborative working and staying abreast of developments. Some of the ideas that came out of the day were captured in visual form by the Migrants in Culture artist Aleesha Nandhra (@aleesha_n on instagram) who took visual notes on the day – see them here.
News
New government
Labour is now in government. What does this mean for those who have to struggle with the immigration system? This briefing by the Refugee Council touches on some of the challenges that the new government will have to confront if it wants to create a humane, functioning system, from the huge asylum backlog – leaving thousands in limbo – and the absence of safe routes which continues to result in deaths in the Channel.
So far, there have been some positive changes:
- The Home Office has altered – and softened – its language slightly, and is now referring to “irregular” rather than “illegal” migration. But it remains to be seen whether this augurs a more humane policy approach in general.
- The cruel and costly Rwanda Plan has been abandoned for good and those who were at risk of deportation to Rwanda are going to have their claims processed.
- The Bibby Stockholm Barge will close in January when the contract ends.
- Through new Regulations amending the Illegal Migration Act 2023, asylum claims by new arrivals can once again be processed and they can be granted permission to remain in the UK and British citizenship, regardless of when they arrived here. Other parts of the Act – such as duty to make arrangements for removal – have been paused indefinitely. But the Act remains on the statute book and could be revived by a future government unless it is properly repealed by primary legislation. Perhaps this will be part of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill announced in King’s Speech?
- Afghan families who were separated during the military evacuation from Kabul in August 2021 will be able to reunite through a new phase of the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme. This is welcome news, but it is still a time-limited expression of interest scheme, families have only 3 months until 30 October 2024 to submit their interest. We have also still not heard anything about a visa scheme for Palestinians trapped in the war on Gaza.
Despite glimpses of promise, there is no time for complacency while the Hostile Environment remains in place and while people will continue to struggle with poverty, homelessness and the crisis in the provision of advice and legal representation. The new government is also echoing some of the tough-on-immigration rhetoric used by its predecessor, with the new Home Secretary calling for a blitz of immigration raids. So, regardless of who is in power, we will need to stand strong with our migrant and refugee neighbours, friends and community members, and provide them with the support and solidarity they need to build a new life and flourish in the UK.
Digital visa rollout – delayed
In June we signed an open letter to the Home Office with the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA) and over 200 others in the immigration and refugee sector, raising our concerns about the digitalisation of immigration status in the UK. Our concerns are that it is systematically flawed and the most vulnerable and marginalised migrants could face a Windrush-style scandal.
According to recent reports, while the Home Office said people would be able to apply to access the new “eVisas” from June this year, the Home Office is now advising that applications will open “later in 2024”. Yet despite this delay, there has apparently been no change to the 31 December deadline for the transition to eVisas. More than 4 million non-EU migrants will need an eVisa by 31 December 2024 – after that date, their BRPs will no longer be accepted as a proof of immigration status and residency rights.
Although applications to access eVisas will be accepted in 2025, many people may not learn of the rule change until they suddenly find their BRP no longer proves their rights. ILPA has written to the Home Office again and awaits a response.
If you are concerned about the digital visa process, please seek advice.
Get involved
Could you be a WFMA volunteer?
If you have any time to spare each week, month or even for a one-off piece of work, please do email [email protected] and we will send you a registration form so we can see how we might best use your talents!
If you’re interested in anything campaigns or communications related, please contact me at [email protected]
Support us
Become a WFMA member and become part of our community – click here to fill out the joining form.
Alternatively, click here! to make a one-time donation – or even better, set up a monthly recurring donation – and make a valuable contribution to what we do.
Every penny you give will be appreciated and go towards helping us give urgently needed support to migrants in Waltham Forest through our Support Centre and other work.
The Support Centre is open for drop-in every Friday from 10am -12.30pm at the Baptist Church, 65 Blackhorse Road, Walthamstow E17 7AS.
For more information, please email is [email protected]. Most immigration inquiries will require a follow up appointment – so drop in, phone or email to secure a time.
Waltham Forest Migrant Action 