Being Heard: Human Rights and Asylum Conference

Dear Colleague,

We are delighted to invite you to the Being Heard: Human Rights and Asylum Conference. This not to be missed event takes place on the 21st of September 2010 at the University of Leicester, Kathryn & Henry  May Lecture theatre from 9am to 4:30pm

Asylum has become an increasingly polemical issue used by the media and politicians to fuel fears. The language used and the stories that are told are often partisan, giving a biased or partial account.  The aim of this conference is to explore how ‘asylum stories’ change in a shifting economic and political context; how ‘asylum stories’ get believed or interpreted; who is telling these stories and in whose interest are they being told.

Central to the conference is the theme of ‘human rights’. Increasingly hard-line and restrictive asylum policies and practices of many governments have called into question the scope of protections offered by the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. The conference will explore how the Government’s recent immigration and asylum policies have undermined basic human rights by denying support to those who do not apply for asylum at the earliest opportunity.

We look forward to you joining us on the 21st of September 2010.

If you wish to attend, please contact Carl Gudgeon (Clinical Psychology Department) on telephone 0116 223 1639 or  e-mail: cmg16@leicester.ac.uk

https://acrobat.com/#d=EDDzIOLOsAh-KIgo4DYRDA
Kind regards,

Elisha Shamba

City of Sanctuary National Conference 2010

Monday 13th September, 10.30-4pm, Birmingham City Centre

Discover how communities across the UK are becoming Towns and Cities of Sanctuary

Share your experience of working to build a culture of hospitality for people seeking sanctuary

This year’s national conference will feature inspiring stories from City of Sanctuary initiatives across the UK, including Swansea, which has recently become Wales’ first official City of Sanctuary.

Guest speakers, including Dr Ibrahim Shaw from the UWE ‘Refugee & Migrant Support Hub’, will explore ways of creating ‘Universities of Sanctuary’ – opening up access to higher education for people seeking sanctuary.

A lively afternoon session of ‘Open Space’ workshops will create spaces for sharing experience on a wide range of issues including:
- Involving refugees
- Legal advice
- Refugee speaker teams
- Creative resource raising
- Working with supporting organisations, ‘Regions of Sanctuary’
- Using the media
- Involving and keeping volunteers
- Starting a City of Sanctuary initiative
- Access to healthcare and more…

Participation in the conference is by donation to cover costs of catering.

To book your place please contact us as soon as possible at: mailto:cityofsanctuary@cityofsanctuary.org or visit: www.cityofsanctuary.org/conference

Improving Local Provision Through Multi-Agency Working

How I started my own business

By Barbara Nyagomo Mambo

Once upon a time I worked for corporate organisations. I did that for over 10 years. I learned loads but wanted to start on my own and I snapped when i was pregnant,carrying my first baby 2003.

The timing was right and that’s when I decided to go it alone. Back in January 2007 and I have never looked back. When you are employed but want to start something it can seem risky – but the rewards are so great.

One thing you can do whilst you are still employed is to sketch out a plan and financial forecasts of the business you are thinking of starting. Then you’ll have a great idea of what you need to achieve in your first year and beyond.

So if you are still *thinking* of starting your business then start putting pen to paper right now.

Come and listen to stories like mine at the Southern African Business Conference London 12/12/09
Register for free http://www.sa-abroad.com

Policy Update Conference

The Refugee Council

Network for Change: 21st anniversary conference

Join us for a day of lively and thought provoking discussion, debate and celebration
of 21 years of Network for Change at Friends Meeting House, Queens Road, Leicester on October 27th 2009 from 9:30am – 4:30pm.

Network for Change started its journey in the late 1980’s as part of Leicester MIND
Housing Group. Over the last 21 years NFC has evolved into an innovative and
creative service provider with a strong values base rooted in recovery and person
centred practice with a thirst for exploring alternative perspectives and encouraging
critical dialogue in mental health and well-being.

This conference brings together some of the many people we have met along the
way who’s inspiration and/or support has had a marked influence on our
development.

Building on our successful series of discussion evenings at the Network Resource
Centre over the last two years the conference also aims to bring alternative and
critical perspectives in mental health to Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland with
the hope of establishing a broader dialogue around mental health and well-being.
Cost £45 for waged, £25 for unwaged and students and free to Network Members.
There will also be an optional donation towards food and refreshments.

Conference speakers and workshop facilitators

The conference will be opened by Antony Sheehan, Chief Executive of the Leicestershire
Partnership Trust.

Dr Joanna Moncrieff – “The trouble with psychiatric drugs…”
Author of ‘The myth of the Chemical cure’ Dr Moncrieff is a key member of the Critical Psychiatry Network and will explore the history of medical interventions and their limitations.

Sharon Warwick

Sharon will discuss the findings and implications of her research on Spiritual Crisis covering participants who have and have not become involved in Mental Health Services. The results are due to be be published next year in the second edition of Psychosis and Spirituality, Exploring the new frontier (Ed Isabel Clarke).

Karen Taylor
Along with her partner Ron Coleman Karen has been a long term supporter of Network and along with others from the Gloucestershire based Keepwell organisation was amongst the first to introduce the concept of recovery to the UK and indeed to Network.

Karen and Ron continue to have a big influence on services both in Scotland and the rest of the world.

Janice Hartley

Janice is currently studying for an MSc in Consciousness and Transpersonal Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University and secretary of the newly formed UK Spiritual Crisis Network. These interests stem from her own experience of psychosis and psychiatric hospital. She has conducted training sessions for the Hearing Voices Network and for the Clinical psychology training program in Liverpool.

Living with Psychiatric Medication Group

LWPMG are an independent group who meet regularly to discuss and share ideas around medication issues and will be presenting their Drug Company Advertising Amnesty project which collected drug company advertising items which were then transformed into pieces of art designed to stimulate discussion about how this kind of advertising makes us feel and what it might mean.

Guy Holmes – toxic mental environments
Guy is a Clinical Psychologist living and working in Shropshire. He specialises in alternatives to Psychiatry and challenging stigma through group work, and has published in the areas of male victims of childhood sexual abuse, toxic mental environments, the medicalisation of men’s problems and psychiatric drugs. His books are collaborations between people from differing backgrounds, including people who describe themselves as psychiatric service survivors, many of whom are publishing their work for the first time.

They include: Psychology in the Real World: Community-based groupwork
(2009); This is Madness: A Critical Look at Psychiatry and the Future Mental Health Services (1999) and This is Madness Too: Critical Perspectives on Mental Health (2001).

Rachel Waddingham
Rachel is an inspiration to us all at Network. Her strength and support is a clear demonstration of how mutuality and hope in recovery works. Currently managing Mind in Camden’s London Hearing Voices Project Rachel will close the conference with Gabby giving a unique perspective on Networks values, ethos and practice from the view point of someone who’s been there…

Gabby Briner
Gabby has been with Network from the very beginning and continues to lead the organisation through ups and downs alike. Drawing on her passion and commitment to recovery Gabby will summarise the last 21 years and look to the challenges ahead…

www.networkforchange.org.uk
TEL: 0116 2470335
FAX: 0116 2470766
EMAIL – darren@networkforchange.org.uk

WorldBridge – the UK’s new drawbridge?

By Frances Webber

When Neil Clarke of UNITED[1] organised a conference in Sheffield, he stumbled across a new series of obstacles for those seeking visas for the UK.

Organising a conference bringing together delegates from the 560 or so anti-racist, anti-fascist, refugee and migrant support groups in seventy European countries which make up UNITED is no easy task at the best of times. But when Neil Clarke agreed to organise UNITED’s bi-annual conference, scheduled for June 2009, on the theme of ‘Minority Issues and the Far Right’, little did he realise what a bureaucratic nightmare he had taken on. As a member of Minority Rights Group and of UNITED, Clarke is used to organising events in various European countries, and particularly aware of the need to start applying for delegates’ visas in good time. He allowed two months for the process of applying, and planned for having to deal with British embassies and consulates all over Europe.

He told IRR News what he found, which was that the UK Border Agency (UKBA) has recently employed a private company, WorldBridge Service, to handle visa applications from all over Europe. In fact, when we checked on the WorldBridge website, it became clear that it handles applications from the Middle East, the Caribbean and the Americas too. Countries in Africa, Asia and parts of the Middle East are covered by another company, VFS Global. WorldBridge and VFS Global do not decide visa applications; they receive them and send them on to the relevant embassy or consulate. Visa applications must be made online, or on application forms downloaded from the internet (thus effectively barring those without access to the internet), but applicants must attend personally to hand in documents. Although the WorldBridge website gives information about the time UKBA is likely to take to process the visa application, it doesn’t mention the extra four to eleven weeks applicants will need to wait for an appointment at WorldBridge to hand in the documents. Since WorldBridge is run as a profit-making enterprise, it charges ‘customers’ up to €2 per minute, or $14 per call, for a call to its advice line. To make a call, you need a credit or debit card – another way of excluding poorer visa applicants.

Would-be conference delegates who arrived at WorldBridge for their documents appointment wishing to check that they were submitting the right documents were given no help at all, according to Clarke. A woman in Russia, who asked if her documents were correct, was told that she should have checked them before she came. Her requests to call the advice line or the embassy from the WorldBridge office were refused, and when she said she would make a call from outside the building, she was told that this would count as a cancellation of her documents appointment and she would have to wait several weeks for another one. Her application with its non-refundable fee went in as it was and was refused – she had not submitted all the necessary documents.

As a result of this privatisation by stealth, embassy and consulate staff can no longer deal with queries. Some staff complain that they no longer have external phone lines or email. It’s no longer possible to ring up to ask when a visa is likely to be issued, or whether any further documents are needed. If an application is refused, it’s no longer possible to ring, check what further information or documentation is required and fax it in – now, with private companies as gatekeepers, applicants must go back to the end of the queue.

Some embassy and consulate staff are unhappy about the barbed wire bureaucracy erected between themselves and visa applicants (while others are delighted not to be dealing with the public). Clarke pointed out, ‘Our conference was funded by the Council of Europe and the European Union, which normally guarantees co-operation in the resolution of visa issues by embassy staff. But we only managed to get delegates their visas by round-the-clock, constant pestering and generally pulling out all the stops to persuade embassy staff to provide assistance. Imagine the situation for a private individual with no strings to pull – an Algerian in Germany, say, trying to attend a business meeting here.’

As a result of problems with visas, two delegates had to make duplicate visa applications for the conference, a number of people were also unable to attend and others were delayed and arrived late. All of this resulted in UNITED losing money. Furthermore, some delegates found some of the questions in the visa application forms ‘humiliating’.

WorldBridge describes itself as ‘providing services to help people apply for United Kingdom (UK) visas’. The experience of Clarke and the delegates whose entry he was trying to secure in June suggested the opposite: the private companies employed to receive visa applications appeared to be providing services to help UKBA keep people, who don’t have credit cards or internet access, from getting anywhere near the UK.

Source:Institute of Race Relations

Conference a Huge Success

By Kenneth Mawomo and Phadden Munyoro

On Tuesday, 28 April 2009, all roads led to the University of Leicester’s Henry Wellcome building for an innovative Conference to create awareness about the life experiences of local refugees and asylum seekers in Leicester.

The conference was jointly organised by Hatnews ,the Clinical Psychology Department at the University of Leicester together with a number of Leicester based community organisations including Leicester City of Sanctuary, Soft Touch and Leicester Libraries.

Among the list of guest speakers was The Right Worshipful Lord Mayor of Leicester,  Councillor Manjula Sood who gave an inspirational speech reflecting on her life experiences. She came to Leicester in 1970 to join her husband. She revealed the agonizing challenges she went through in trying to settle here. Back then, she even contemplated returning to her native home but her father encouraged her to persevere. In 1972 she gained education in PGCE at Leicester University. Since 1973, she taught at local primary schools like Marriot Junior, East Park and Spinney Hills Primary being one of the first Asian female primary school teachers. Following the sudden death of her husband Paul Sood in 1996, she went into politics. In every role, she has always taught people the value and respect and understanding towards their fellow human beings. The Lord Mayor reiterated the fact that Leicester is a special home away from home, a place where dreams, hopes and aspirations can be realized.

Other guest speakers included Councillor Abdul Razak Osman(Office of the Deputy Leader), Geoff Saul(Curriculum Area Manager – ESOL Leicester College), Steve Beverley(Leicester Libraries), Amy Edwards(Charnwood Arts), Helen Everett (City of Sanctuary), Susan Hind (Open Hands Trust) and Alison Dunne (The Book Doctor).

Depressing revelations of a failed asylum seeker’s harrowing experiences in UK, recorded in diary form were read out by Alison, Phil and Millie. The monologue highlighted problems associated with lack of access to decent accommodation, threats of eviction by the authorities, lack of proper sanitation, access to GPs and solicitors and the resultant psychological torture.

One of the delegates interviewed by Bridgett Blair for BBC Radio Leicester, Senior Clinical Tutor (University of Leicester) Dr.Steve Melluish said : ‘Leicester’s cultural heritage reflects the fact that the city has historically been a settling place for many migrants and is home to a diversity of people from different backgrounds.’

Well over 120 delegates including refugees and asylum seekers, clinical psychology students, healthcare and social care professionals, university staff, 10 year 5 pupils from St. Thomas Moore Primary School accompanied by their teacher and Multi Agency Forum(MAF) members were in attendance.

In addition to the conference programme, there were a series of stalls and art displays from a wide range of organisations (Curve Theatre, Soft Touch Arts, ASSIST, Gondor Project Ethiopia, Amnesty International, Refugee Action, NIACE, Charnwood Arts, Catch 22, Leicester City NHS, Open Hands Trust and LASS) in the foyer of the Henry Wellcome building which was open to all from 10.30am – 3.30pm. Musical entertainment was provided by a drumming group called Afro-ex.

See You Tube Videos for the Conference:
Part 1
Part 2

Flickr photos

Feedback

Ratings of 1-7, rating 1 being very poor, rating 7 being very good. 25 forms returned. Approximately 120 people attended

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Presentations				6	4	7	6
Displays			1		6	9	9
Organisation of event			2		2	10	11
Venue		1				5	19
Lunch			1	3	2	11	8

Comments under ratings:

1. Presentations

- Really enjoyed the more personal, reflective talks. Film in the morning was very informative and very interesting. Loved the poems in the morning too.
-The Lord Mayor excellent as always – perhaps more personal stories from refugees would have been good too – sorry I had to leave at 2.00 p.m.
-Varied – not a good idea to have someone from libraries ?? a long document. Lord Mayor and speaker from COS good. Moderator good. Info good – library speaker (1) – others 5-7.
-DVD was good, other presentation was average. Speakers started getting boring.
-(Quite mixed overall – some fluent, some a bit dry). Lots of very interesting stuff but slightly limiting in that it was mainly a series of Talking Heads, which didn’t allow for much participation. However, aside from the school children, almost everyone stayed to the end which tells its own story.
-Good to have a lot of short, sharp presentations. Morning video was great. Maybe a little more interaction with the audience would help?
-Well organised.
-Some were very good, interesting and educational. Some were not so good.
-Very variable presentations. Statutory services – too much ????????? Contract with voluntary sector rather painful at times. Art therapy too theoretical – ASSIST service presentation much better. Poems and monologues brilliant.
-Diverse range of speakers – very informative. Would have liked to hear more from asylum seekers themselves/more interactive activities/personal experiences.
-Diverse spectrum of presentations but maybe too many? No personal refugees/asylum seeker speakers talked which seemed a shame.
-Very clear and health (good) – absolutely brilliant.
-Enjoyed the video presentations.
-Some better than others – but reading a speech does not make it interesting.

2. Displays

- Good.
-Very interesting and raised awareness.
-Very varied and from a really diverse collection of organisations.
-XXX ‘home is a special place’ and music.
-Fantastic.
-Information packed – links were made.
-Really well done.
-Good range of organisations/information.
-Good range of stalls and information.
-Very understood.
-Very informative.

3. Organisation of event

- Maybe could have done with a brief morning coffee break.
-Good.
-Too many speakers in so little time – there should have been a short 15 minute tea break in the morning session.
-Well co-ordinated and ‘shepherded’ – unlike many conferences which run over time from the outset!
-Impeccable.
-Good.
-Better communication, e.g., confirmation of conference nomination.
-Fine – firm grip on timing welcome.
-Well organised (no programme available on arrival however).
-Was not given a programme on arrival, everything else was super.
-Organisation and groups are already playing a big part should take they issues seriously and act ASAP.

· Good.

4. Venue

- Good.
-Excellent facilities to meet everyone’s needs.
-No place better than this.
-Very limitable.
-Claustrophobic and not enough fresh air in lecture theatre – gave me a headache. Seating badly designed so impossible to get out middle seats without disturbing a dozen people.
-Adequate, modern, clean, pleasant, location good.
-Enough space and easy to get there.
-Good.

5. Lunch

- Very good.
-Not much variety.
-Lovely food, but a bit of a squash to get to it.
-Was very good, organise more such events please and make the public know about them.
-I did not get what I wanted, e.g., decaffineated tea, etc.
-Very tasty.
-Yum!
-Very nice, shame about the queue!
-Anyone had a chance to eat (choose) whatever they wanted. Nice food (I like desert but couldn’t see).
-OK
-Excellent – especially because of the music and the children’s spontaneous dancing which accompanied it.

Any other comments:

- Length of presentations right length – moderator good in keeping to boundaries. I found the monologues and poems particularly powerful.
-I was expecting more than just having speakers talk about what they do. More stories from refugees/asylum seekers would have been better and more interesting.
-A very worthwhile day – reaching a lot of new people. Thank you for organising it.
-I’ve had such a lovely, heart-warming, rich and nurturing day. Thank you.
-Great energy and buzz. Hope the idea of a central resource of info takes off. I should’ve brought info on my organisation.
-Generally fantastic.
-It would have been nice to hear an asylum seeker or failed asylum seeker talk about their present situation.
-A wonderful event, great to hear about all the brilliant projects in Leicester – keep up the good work!
-Publicity is still little. This marks the beginning of something special.
-Lots of information to share with our team.
-Good mix of people and chance to network. The work being done is very important
– think more about presentation and don’t smother good work by unimaginative approach, e.g., Leicester College ESOL.
-Thanks for the invite. Keep up the good work and awareness/insight to pass on to others.
-Insightful and creative.
-?? come people can have hope that they are not alone, there are people out there who care about other people, even they can’t get anything out from it (can’t stand/sit back while other human beings are suffering).
-Congratulations to Elisha.

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