WFMA News

Support Centre Update

Statistics for January and February 2025 show 151 contacts from 103 people, of which 52 were visiting for the first time. We saw people from 39 nationalities – with more people from Asia. Eritreans still make up the biggest single group. For the first time, the ratio of male to female was 50:50.

⚠️ The Government have extended  e-visa deadline, this time to 01st June 2025, but we still lack information about what happens to those who have fallen through the net. Please let anyone you know who may need an e-visa to contact us: [email protected].

🍲 WelcomeStow continues to offer delicious freshly cooked lunches, every Friday during term-time – please spread the word!

📣 WFMA AGM

Our next AGM will take place on 18th May. It’s been a pivotal year for WFMA, with lots of positive changes over the last 12 months and exciting plans for the future.

The AGM is an opportunity to come together, for members to be actively involved in shaping our organisation and co-create a stronger, migrant friendly community. Members are an important part of WFMA, our long-term sustainability and ability to provide support to people seeking asylum, refugees and migrants. If you aren’t already, please become a member today! 

We now have a new strategy that sets out how we will continue offering practical advice and support to people seeking asylum, refugees and migrant living locally, through our drop in centre, promoting integration between migrants and locals through opportunities to socialise and share meals, and fighting back against harmful immigration narratives.

📆 More diary dates!

A reminder to join us for Bus Campaign meeting on Friday 25th April! 
Please note, there is a prayer room available inside City Hall.
Let us know if you can make it: [email protected]

🧡 Refugee Week

This year, Refugee Week  takes place between the 16th and 22nd June – and is only three months away.

The theme is ‘Community as a Superpower‘ and the Refugee Week coalition are teaming up with Moomins to spread messages of inclusivity, kindness, and belonging.  

📣 London Legal Walk – 17th June: Calling all Walkers!

There are four of us so far: Jaz, Misba, George and I … and we are looking for more of you to join our team for what promises a fun day out raising funds for WFMA! All you need to do is contact me at [email protected] with your name and I’ll add you to the team and fundraising page.

There are several routes to choose from, including two shorter routes – of 3.5K and 1.32K – for those who would find 10K too challenging. 

If walking is not for you or you are not able to participate in this event, PLEASE DONATE – every penny goes directly to WFMA to provide much needed support with running our drop in centre

✨ Save the date: Friday 20th June

We are super excited to host our own Refugee Week Community Celebration – an evening of poetry, readings, followed by music and DJs – upstairs at the Walthamstow Trades Hall. Unfortunately, this venue is not accessible to wheelchairs.

📣 CALLING LOCAL PERFORMERS – if you or someone you know would like to perform, we would love to hear from you. We are particularly keen to hear from local poets and DJs, especially with lived experience. Please contact me at [email protected] – and SHARE WIDELY.

We’ll be sharing updates on social – so, please gives us a follow on insta and Bluesky.

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The news is predictably bleak – article after article points to a failing system that is jeopardising people’s lives for little else but political gain. But we owe to ourselves and each other to look for the odd rays of sunshine to power our continued fight for migrant justice.

So let’s start with the good news that Napier Barracks, the disused military site housing people seeking asylum in appalling conditions, is closing in September. Hooray!!

Last week, More in Common and the Refugee Council published the heartwarming results of research* they conducted to understand attitudes towards refugees and people seeking asylum. The results show overwhelming support for refugees – predictably, they didn’t make headlines in the right-wing press: 

• 68% of people believe that attitudes towards refugees were more negative today than they were twenty years ago;
• Over two thirds (69%) of Britons are proud of the country’s role taking in refugees since the Second World War; 
• And that over half (56%) of people are in favour of supporting refugee’s integration into life in Britain, including helping them to learn English and get into work.

*The poll was carried out at the start of 2025 and surveyed 4,118 adults in total.

The Refugee Council also shared new analysis outlining the huge increase, by nearly 500%, in the people seeking asylum awaiting appeals. At the end of 2024, there were nearly 41,987 people left in limbo because of tribunal courts backlog. One of the key reasons for this is an increase in refusals, which can be traced back to a Home Office decision to recruit inexperienced case workers and shorter initial interviews that have led to errors and omissions.

Right to Remain shared an interesting blog about the Home Office Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules in 2025, published on 12 March 2025. These include: introducing a visa requirement for visitors from Trinidad and Tobago, changes to the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme, and changes to protect care workers on the Skilled Worker Visa route, after numerous reports of exploitation and abuse.

Further reading

New research by Women for Refugee Women – ‘A Decade of Harm’ – highlights the continued plight of women in immigration detention and shows that the majority of asylum-seeking women detained are survivors of rape and other forms of gender-based violence, including domestic violence, forced marriage and sexual exploitation. Locking up women who have already survived serious violence and abuse re-traumatises them, causing profound and long-lasting damage to their mental health. You can read the full report here.