Welcome to the autumn issue of your newsletter!
It’s an exciting week for us. On Thursday, the Mayor officially launches his Charity Appeal. Every donation will go to supporting our work and that of ELOP, a community-led LGBTQIA+ mental health charity. Expect more updates very soon!
So what’s in store: WFMA updates, party conferences, forthcoming events and … the latest news.
WFMA update
I hope you’ve had a lovely summer – ours was definitely on the busy side!
In the first quarter of 2026 – 27, we saw an increase in the number of people attending our Friday drop-in sessions. And while we expect a slight decrease in figures over summer, in particular because the centre was closed over three Fridays – to coincide with the office move and the summer break – we are now seeing more clients than ever before.
We moved in July and are now in our new space at St Mary’s Welcome Centre and are slowly settling in, onboarding new volunteers and updating our systems. Thank you everyone who helped making it such a smooth experience.
We’ve been working with colleagues in other local organisations, as part of the Council of Voluntary Services (CVS) Refugee and Migrant Network, to shape the new Borough of Sanctuary framework. We met with the new Leader of Waltham Forest Council to discuss a progressive strategy for the coming years.
We’ve also been meeting with the Mayor and Youth Mayor to prepare for the Mayor’s Charity Appeal launch this week.
We Keep Us Safe workshop
On 4th September, we ran a workshop in partnership with Migrant Rights Network (MRN) and Waltham Forest Anti-Raids Network (WARN). ‘We Keep Us Safe’ was an excellent opportunity to join the dots at local and national level, and draw attention to the landscape and impact of immigration enforcement raids on communities across the UK – including ours.
We were joined by participants from diverse background bringing a wealth of experience, expertise and passion to the discussion.
The workshop was part of a research project and workshop series carried out nationally by MRN with a specific focus on ending local authority collaboration. A report will be coming out later this year and we look forward to reading it and sharing the findings.
In the meantime, check out useful MRN resource – We keep each other safe workbook – a practical guide co-developed with migrants and migrant-led organisations in London and Belfast. It maps real experiences of harm and outlines community-led safety strategies.
Anti-raids organising is increasingly recognised a key form of resisting the hostile environment and forging community solidarity. This piece by Francesca Humi in Shado Mag is an inspiring read on how we can work together ‘On the frontlines of state violence’.
Party Conferences
High(low)lights
➡️ In July, Andy Burrham MP became our seventh PM in a decade. This was his first Labour Party conference as the party leader and his opportunity to share his vision for the future. Under the banner ‘Hope Again’, he announced a long list of aspirational policies, including an ambitious National Care Service.
One major element was missing from his speech, however: a recognition that we couldn’t possibly run such a service without migrant workers.
Figures from various sources* show that migrant workers make up around one third of the care workforce (in England) and play a major role in running the service. But hostile immigration policies are creating an impossible situation.
A significant number of care workers are employed on a Health and Care Worker Visa, a visa category introduced post-Brexit, and which effectively ties migrant workers to their employers. Many face unsustainable working hours, low levels of pay, and persistent breaches of employment rights.
On 22 July 2025, a ban on new international recruitment on the Health and Care Worker Visa came into force, which is already leading to concerning labour shortages. And to make matters worse, the ‘earned’ settlement policies, announced earlier this year, will mean workers might have to wait between 10 – 20 years before they qualify for indefinite leave to remain.
Shabana Mahmood’s speech differed little from last year’s, except this time she may have sounded less belligerent, but the policies haven’t changed.
First she announced that ‘net migration’ and ‘small boat crossings’ were down. She then took us down memory lane and gave us a rose tinted spiel about fairness and the 1970’s, when “most Brits thought it was right to welcome people who came here legally, built a new life, and contribute to our nation.”
I wasn’t in the UK in the 1970’s, but I’ve spoken to plenty of people who were, and the stories they tell are not of this wonderful harmonious utopia. No. It was society deeply divided and racist, where the fascist National Front paraded the streets threatening anyone who wasn’t White! Initiatives such as Rock Against Racism, co-founded by Walthamstow resident, Roger Huddle, amongst many others, didn’t spring out of nowhere. They demonstrate the sense of urgency at a time of deep malaise.
The continued focus on ‘smashing gangs’ is unrealistic and in contradiction with the Home Office drive to close or suspend existing safe routes, such as refugee family reunion. While we welcome her announcement that “new, capped safe and legal routes” will be open – i.e. community sponsorship and the UK Resettlement Route in partnership with the United Nations, with a focus on Afghan women and girls, and Palestinians who have fled the horrors of Gaza, it is doesn’t go anywhere far enough. We need more safe routes.
➡️ We have a report from Isabel, one of our volunteers, who attended Green Party conference:
I spent the weekend in sunny Brighton talking to the people shaping the Green Party’s approach to many issues including migration, and a few conversations stood out.
I spoke with Sian Berry MP about the upcoming immigration bill. She was passionate in her opposition to it, and stressed that the right to work for people seeking asylum has to be central. For anyone supporting refugees day to day, this is essentially the goal: to allow asylum seekers the right and freedom to support themselves.
Alongside this, with the growing anti- immigration rhetoric, I had the chance to speak to London Assembly member for the Green Party, Benali Hamdache, to hear about his Prevent project, which focuses on tackling extremism among young people. It was a thoughtful conversation about what meaningful, community-led prevention could look like.
➡️ Meanwhile, at Conservative Party Conference, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp MP focused his speech on leaving the ECHR and tightening borders. Reform UK invited Jordan Bardella, the President of the National Rally, France’s far right party, to present a memorandum of understanding on immigration between the two parties. Finally, while Liberal Democrats tore into the far-right, they fell short of making any major policy commitments.
*Source references
Working Rights Centre, Skills for Care, Guardian
🔸 Migrants Organise launched a new exhibition ‘Taking Liberties: Detentions, Reporting and Resistance’ exploring the ways in which immigration detention and reporting deprive people of their freedom, rights and autonomy.
📆 On until 15 January 2027.
⏰ Monday to Friday, 9.00 am – 6.00 pm
📍The Foundry, 17 Oval Way, London, SE11 5RR
🔸 Right to Remain – From 19–25 October 2026, join the National Week of Solidarity to End Immigration Detention! There are local actions taking place across the UK.
🔸 Patients not Passports‘ inspiring ‘No Borders in our NHS‘ exhibition is continuing its tour of Waltham Forest Libraries and has just landed in Chingford Library, E4 7EN. It will be there until Tuesday 03 November. And, extra bonus, they are marking Black History Month with a display celebrating key Black figures, including Mary Seacole, Claudia Jones, Winifred Arwell, Benjamin Zephaniah and many more.
🔸 Waltham Forest Anti-Raids Network
Open Meeting: Having Difficult Conversations
📆 Wednesday 21 October
⏰ 6.30 – 8.00 pm
📍 Hornbeam Centre
🔸 DISPLACED – An intergenerational exhibition exploring the intersection of alchemy, human migration and waste colonialism across diaspora communities.
📆 Wednesday 28 October
⏰ 6.00 – 10.00 pm
📍October Gallery, 24 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AL
🔸 Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Public meeting: Defending Rights, Building Power: Lawyers, campaigners, and the fight for migrant justice. Reserve your place.
📆 Thursday 29 October
⏰ Doors open at 6.30 pm
📍Pelican House
🔸 InterFaith Week is partnering with Together With Refugees 🧡
On the Theme of ‘Stronger Together’, Women in Interfaith are hosting ‘Food & Friendship’ and we will be teaming up them and other local organisations.
Join us for free and friendly interfaith shared meals, open to everyone, of all faiths and no faith. Feel free to drop in or stay to swap stories and make new local connections in our ‘story café’ session. If you have any questions or need support with transport, please contact the WIN team: [email protected].
📆 Thursday 12th November
⏰ 6.00 to 9.00 pm
📍 St. Mary’s Church, Walthamstow, 8 Church End, London E17 9RJ (Main Church Building)
Please let us know if you would like to join: [email protected]
Keeping the worst till last – dip in and out, or skip altogether it if it’s all too much to take in … although there is the odd good news to balance it out.
The horrendous, unworkable ‘One in, One out’ deal between the UK and France got scrapped. In a year, 1,500 people seeking safety were deported to France as part of the scheme. Many have spoken about their horrifying experiences. This story gives us a glimpse into the reality of the hostile environment.
Sadly, such stories are becoming commonplace globally.
Policies in the UK permit revoking refugee status and deporting people, as is the case for a Syrian man – despite the UK Foreign Office and the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) stipulating that the situation in Syria ‘remains volatile’, and UNHCR, in its most recent guidance about the safety of Syria, found that governments should not be returning refugees there.
The U.S. has brokered deals with 35 countries globally, comprising Panama, Uzbekistan, Liberia, amongst others, that will accept people deported by the U.S. These forcible deportations of migrants are led by the newly formed ‘Office of Remigration’ and will bring a new layer of inhumanity to the U.S. immigration system.
And in Europe, Ursula von der Leyen outlined her approach to the Commission, which is all about pushing to step up deportations.
Meanwhile, the far right is garnering support and visibility. Last month, a group of masked men in black staged intimidating marches in Dover and Portsmouth. But not satisfied with terrorising local communities, far-right agitator, Daniel Thomas, live-streamed himself slashing a dinghy in Channel with blade while a rescue worker was onboard. These are the same people who have threatened the RNLI – whose mission is actually to ‘save lives at sea’ – because they accused volunteers of saving the lives of people seeking safety.
But communities are resisting – and winning!
In July, Lewisham council were the first to declare their refusal to co-operate with the Home Office in immigration enforcement raids and announced they are “building an anti-raids sanctuary corridor in and beyond Lewisham”. Waltham Forest have also been vocal in their opposition. This has led to condemnation from the London Assembly. We were able to provide a quote in response in the Waltham Forest Echo. But that didn’t stop Newham councillors to agree unanimously that ‘Council resources shouldn’t be used to support immigration raids.’
