It’s been a busy few months at WFMA, so expect an update packed with what we’ve been up to – that’s the good news! And, of course, there is the business as usual pile of bad news: Belfast, our take on the new PM, the Immigration and Asylum Bill, the ‘One-In, One-Out’ scheme … and then glimmers of hope and solidarity that sustain us – including an urgent campaign to stop the expansion of Campsfield detention centre.

Looking for ways to support us?

🔸 You can donate to our London Legal Walk fundraiser

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We love hearing from supporters, so please never hesitate to contact us: [email protected].


Thank you all for your continued support.

WFMA News

Support centre

Earlier this month, we held our AGM and shared our annual report. Here are some highlights:

During the 2025 – 2026 financial year, the support centre had contact with 1032 people – including calls, texts, emails and in person meetings and visits to the support centre – i.e. 173 more people than in the previous year. 

The primary reasons for contacting us were as follows:

We experienced a significant increase in immigration casework, in particular fee waivers, 30-month extensions and citizenship, and reported a high success rate.

Demand for welfare advice has also shot up and is distributed as follows: 

We’re growing 

We’re very excited to welcome Aimee as our new part-time support centre manager working with Mel. 

She first started volunteering at WFMA in 2025, and has been dedicated to supporting people from marginalised backgrounds for many years now. In 2015 she started volunteering with a small homeless charity in Newham, and not long after worked with those going through migration and displacement in both Thailand and Malta at separate organisations. Alongside her voluntary positions she has worked in theatre for over a decade in both regional and West End venues across London and Essex. Outside of work she loves going to festivals, being in nature, painting and being involved in art projects.

A new era begins!

We said goodbye to our friends at Blackhorse Road Baptist Church – thank you for everything! – and moved into our new space at the St Mary’s Welcome Centre (details below). More details on our Support Centre Page. Please spread the word!

The Mayor’s charity

We’re delighted to have been selected as one of the two charities supported by the Mayor’s office for a year and to share the honour with ELOP, the LGBTQI+ support service. The timing of this decision couldn’t be more perfect. 

Read our statement below:

Refugee Week 2026

Our team of five, Aimee, Anne, Jazmyn, Misba and Safiyyah, walked 10K as part of the London Legal Walk on 9th June. We had a wonderful day joining thousands of people demanding access to justice. You can still donate to our fundraiser!

We marked Refugee Week with a s screening of ‘Dreamers’ – the story of two Nigerian women who fall in love in an immigration detention centre. The film explores the intersection of migrant justice and LGBTQ+ human rights – with powerful references to colonialism.

Anti LGBTQ+ laws in Nigeria are still governed by Victorian legislation that has been ramped us in recent years to further criminalise LGBTQ+ people, same sex sexual activity and gender expression of trans people. Sentences vary, but in some regions it can be punishable by death. This of course goes hand in hand with extreme stigma and discrimination. 

Yet, when LGBTQ+ people flee to seek safety in the UK, they face a barrage of restrictions under the UK’s immigration regime. Policies and legislation are designed to be extreme, and the inevitable outcome is more immigration raids, more detentions and more deportations of people who are being framed as ‘illegal’. 

The screening was followed by a panel discussion with Naoise Murphy (Queer Migrant Price Fest, Waltham Forest Anti-Raids Network), Eiri Ohtani (Right to Remain) and Marcelo Hart-Camus (Waltham Forest’s Green Mayor). They shared their reflections about the film, the current context and how it connects to their work and the fight for LGBTQ+ human rights and migrant justice. 

Eiri talked more specifically about solidarity actions emerging in Liverpool and Manchester where small groups of people, including Right to Remain, are protecting each other from immigration enforcement measures, through shared knowledge, trust and power. Naoise shared how similar experiences are taking place locally with a growing number of people engage in anti-raids solidarity actions across Waltham Forest. And Marcelo reiterated support for migrant justice in the new cabinet and talked about the preliminary work to end council complicity in immigration raids.  

We came away from the evening with renewed energy for creating a community where change is possible. 

🧡 Heartfelt thanks to the Gleaners Café for organising a screening of ‘A World Not Ours’ and inviting us to speak.

Belfast – June 2026

Northern Ireland suffered extreme sectarian violence for many decades, but what we witnessed in June was on a different scale. The horrific racist assault on migrant communities across the city, threatening to burn down houses and attack Black and Brown people were nothing short of a pogrom, incited by far-right agitators.

Our statement:

What we have heard about less is the local response. At a recent Anti-Racist Movement event I attended, Kenny, from the Anaka Collective, shared how the community organised to keep each other safe – and that is the only way we will defeat the far-right. We often speak about building trust and solidarity, but people aren’t always sure what it means. In Belfast, in the days following the attacks, they did just that. 

New Prime Minister. Same Home Secretary

On Monday 20th July, we joined over 200 organisations and signed Together With Refugees’ letter to the new PM, asking him to reject the politics of division, focus on what unites us and help build an asylum system rooted in fairness, humanity and hope.

Seems Andy Burnham didn’t get the memo! Not only had he already backed the immigration Bill(more details about the Bill below), but he then went on to reappoint Shabana Mahmood as hostile secretary. So much for hope and change! 

Ever more draconian measures

The new anti-migrant bill is making it’s way through parliament. We knew it was coming – it was announced in the King’s speech and as part of the chilling Restoring Order and Control statement last November. But still, it’s extraordinary to see how much energy the government is prepared to invest into making life impossibly precarious for people seeking safety. 

It is the latest addition to 14 years of hostile environment  policy and the fifth immigration-related Act across five sessions of Parliament! Imagine if the same amount of resources was spent on ending the cost of living and housing crisis!

As with previous legislation, the idea is to convince everyone that it will drastically reduce numbers. It won’t. But what it will do, is devastate people’s lives, leave people in limbo for years on end – and create mountains of additional work for organisations like ours.

In his blog for Refugee and Migrant Justice, Head of Campaigning Nick Beales outlines the impact of Theresa May’s 10 year-route to settlement and describes it as ‘brutal’. Imagine how much damage Mahmood’s Bill will wreck if/when it becomes law.

Some of the key proposals in the Immigration and Asylum Bill, 2026 include:

  • Restrictions to Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which protects family and private life andwill make it harder for migrants to invoke human rights law. Proposals would lead to a re-definition of close family members and keep families apart. It comes on the back of the suspension of the Refugee Family Reunion route in September 2025* – a key safe route – and further undermines universal human rights protections for marginalised communities. 

*The Refugee Council estimates that more than 16,000 refugees have been unable to reunite with families in the UK since last year. 

  • A ‘refugee tax’ – forcing people seeking safety to repay up to £10,000, to cover the cost of their asylum accommodation and financial support, before they can apply to settle in the UK. Remember – people awaiting lengthy home office decisions – now as long as 64 weeks! – are NOT allowed to work and no other options but to stay in asylum accommodation and collect meagre benefits. 
  • Changes to the appeals system – a new ‘independent’ body, called the ‘Independent Immigration Appeals Authority’, set up by the government and the home secretary (raising questions over how ‘independent’ that body will actually be), would replace the current system, whereby appeals are heard by judges the First-tier Tribunal. 

There is currently a huge backlog of people awaiting their appeal’s decision, but this is predominantly due to an increase in refusals – two-thirds of which are later overturned. Stella Creasy MP and Max Wilkinson MP intervened on that very topic in the Parliamentary debate. 

Free Movement shared a briefing providing in depth analysis into the ‘sorry state of the UK asylum system’.

  • Introduction of ‘community’ sponsorship – a  new capped ‘safe route’ for refugees via community groups, universities and businesses. While full details have yet to shared, we are extremely cautious about proposals that are unlikely to be accessible to everyone, and that shift the burden of responsibility onto community groups – that are already overwhelmed.  
  • Proposals to weaken the UK’s approach to modern slavery and trafficking – on the basis that people seeking safety are currently abusing the system – will penalise survivors by setting arbitrary deadlines for disclosure of what they have suffered.

We saw it in Belfast and we see it in so many other places, people are resisting!

‘One-in, one-out’ scheme challenged

Earlier this month, the government’s decision to restrict the rights of certain migrants who are due to be sent back to France under the “one-in, one-out” deal was ruled unlawful. The guidance prevented people, who were due to be sent back under the scheme, from challenging a decision that they were not victims of human trafficking before being removed.

Councils challenging raids

Lewisham’s Green council is planning to end cooperation with the home office on immigration raids and working with Green councils across London to create a corridor of sanctuary. We are working on similar proposals locally. So watch this space!

Students challenging the border industry

Pressure is mounting on university to divest from corporations involved in ‘securitising’ bordersand profiting from hostile immigration policies in Europe and the U.S.. Companies are involved in many different ways from running detention and removal centres (Serco), providing cloud services and other tech (Microsoft, Amazon) facilitating surveillance (Palantir), or airlines running deportation services (British Airways, Air France). But the migrant justice movement is garnering pace and fighting back.    

⚠️ Urgent Campaign

Stop the expansion Campsfield detention centre!

The deadline for this is tonight, Friday 24th July at 23.59.

If you have time and energy to read through this action and send a full response. Right to Remain have provided with an in depth guide.   

If you don’t – there is a a shorter action you can take:

Email the shorter template pasted below to: [email protected]

Short Version: Use this if you want to submit a quick objection.

Subject: Objection to Campsfield House IRC expansion, CROWN/2026/0000004

Dear Planning Inspectorate,

I am writing to object to the proposed expansion of Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre. The application reference is CROWN/2026/0000004.

I object because the proposal would more than double the size of Campsfield, from 160 to 400 places, on Green Belt land. I am concerned that the expansion would make the site more built-up, harm the openness of the Green Belt, and add pressure to local roads, services and infrastructure.

The home office has not clearly shown why 240 additional detention places are needed at Campsfield specifically, or why existing capacity, alternatives to detention, or other estate options would not be sufficient. This is especially important because the proposal would involve permanent development on protected land. Because the site is on Green Belt land, this failure to show need is especially serious. If the home office has not proved that more detention places are needed, it has not shown that the harm to protected land is justified.

I am also concerned that key information has been withheld or redacted, including information about layout, transport, lighting, landscaping and how the site would operate. This makes it difficult for the public to understand the real impact of the proposal.

Immigration detention causes serious harm to people detained there, and the effects are felt by families, communities, legal and advice services, health services and local people. Expanding Campsfield would have serious human and community consequences.

For these reasons, I ask that the application is refused. If it is not refused at this stage, I ask that it is examined through a full public inquiry.

Yours faithfully,

[Your name]
[Date]

Forward a copy to: [email protected]

🇵🇸 Saturday, 25 July, 12.00 – 5.00 pm, Mini Hiba fundraiser for families in Gaza, 6 Wood Street, E17 3HU

🧳 Wednesday, 29 July – The Suitcase’ & other Stories of Belonging – at The Pavilion of Stories The Old Church, Stoke Newington Church Street, London N16 9ES 

🔖 Saturday, 5 September – 2 PM – 3:30 pm: Narrative Shifters: Zine Making Workshop On Migration, The Regent’s Park, Regent’s Park, London NW1 4NR