British Red Cross Refugee Project Peterborough

From 2 September 2011 the British Red Cross Refugee Project at Brassey Close in Peterborough will be open 5 days a week.  Their services can include:

- Help with accessing services such as a doctor, dentist, solicitors, community groups or welfare benefits in the local area.

- Help with locating places such as the Post Office, shops, library, colleges, places of worship or public transport.
- Help with transferring from National Asylum Support Service (NASS) to welfare benefits or employment for those granted status.

- OISC Level 1 Immigration advice (- notifying UKBA of a change of address, including extension of Temporary Admission IS96 – however the service cannot help if the client is fully refused as the client would need an advice from a solicitor; – advice on application for permission to work; – travel document applications; – advice on applications for Indefinite Leave to remain; TOC).

For more information, please contact Dagmar Smith-Kukura on e: [email protected] or t: 01733 557472
Acknowledgements to the East of England Newsflash.  For further information please visit their website: http:/www.eelga.gov.uk/

British Red Cross invites Leicester community to Refugee celebration event

The British Red Cross is inviting people across Leicester to celebrate ‘different pasts and shared futures’ as part of Refugee Week at Leicester Town Hall Square on Saturday 18 June from 11am – 4pm.

The event will offer a fusion of talented musicians, dancers and performers who will be drumming up some noise.

Cathy Stevenson, British Red Cross refugee services manager in Leicester said: “As part of Refugee Week we want to offer people across Leicester the chance to come and celebrate the world we live in with people from across the world. Red Cross staff and volunteers will also be available to talk about our refugee service offer and volunteer opportunities. It should be a great day.”

To find out more please contact Cathy Stevenson at 0845 054 7171  or [email protected]

Refugee Week is a UK-wide programme of arts, cultural and educational events, which celebrates the contribution refugees, make in the UK and encourages a better understanding between communities. Refugee Week 2011 will take place between Monday 20 June and Sunday 26 June 2010.

Interviews are available with Red Cross refugee service manager in Leicester. Angela Mycock – 01565 682 330

Red Cross concerned by crisis in Somalia

By Katie Nguyen

Geneva – Somalia is the world’s most worrying humanitarian crisis because of the scale of the needs there and limited scope for relief due to insecurity, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Wednesday.

The ICRC has been present in the Horn of Africa nation since 1982, but has had to work to a large extent “under a remote control mechanism”, ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger said.

Anarchy and chaos in Somalia force the ICRC to run its operation there from neighbouring Kenya, with close contacts to its local Red Crescent affiliate and other aid organisations.

“If I had to choose one context which I’m mostly worried about in humanitarian terms but also worried about (in terms of) the limited possibilities for humanitarians to do their job – it’s clearly Somalia,” Kellenberger told a news conference.

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‘They’ll go back Home in Coffins’

The Standard – More than 2 000 Zimbabwean immigrants are under siege again in the volatile farming area of De Doorns in South Africa’s Western Cape about 100 km outside Cape Town. The Zimbabweans are currently accommodated by United Nations and Red Cross at a local sports field after locals drove them out of their homes at the beginning of December last year.

South Africans from the local townships have publicly warned the traumatised Zimbabweans that if they return to the townships, they would go back to their country in coffins.

The authorities are taking the threats seriously. Zimbabweans are even afraid to go to the shops for fear of being attacked.

While the authorities are trying their best to make foreigners feel welcome, the locals have made it clear they are not wanted. Zimbabweans in Cape Town top the list of the most hated African immigrants.

In De Doorns the locals also accuse the Zimbabweans of depriving them of income by accepting to work for lower wages.

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NIGERIA: Aid Agencies “staggered” by IDP Numbers

IRIN – Relief agencies are struggling to help the some 18,000 displaced people in 17 makeshift camps in and around the central Nigerian city of Jos.

Most of the displaced do not have enough food and they lack access to toilet facilities and safe drinking water, Nigeria Red Cross (NRC) head Auwalu Mohammed told IRIN.

Local aid agencies and the state authorities say they were unprepared for the scale of destruction, he said.

The capacity of the Nigeria Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and NRC is overstretched, he said, adding that a lack of coordination among local relief organizations is hampering the humanitarian effort.

“There is no synergy between the organizations providing relief. We don’t have an avenue to coordinate the assistance we provide or to know what the needs of the IDPs are and which camps need what materials,” he told IRIN.

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Bauchi Violence: Nigerian Police Detain Children

IRIN -  Eleven children are being detained by police over violence that broke out on 29 December in the northern Nigerian city of Bauchi, according to the Nigeria Red Cross.

 The children – all aged 15 or under – were taken to a juvenile detention centre in Bauchi on 10 January after spending 12 days in police custody, Adamu Abubakar, head of Nigeria Red Cross (NRC) in Bauchi, told IRIN.

 “The 11 children are being held despite our protest. We offered to trace their parents and reunite them but our suggestion was rebuffed by the police authorities,” Abubakar told IRIN.

Read more here

Yemen: IDPs ‘Dire’ Situation Worsened by Cold Weather

IRIN – The plight of tens of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in tents or deserted houses in the volatile northern Yemeni governorate of Saada and surrounding areas is worsening because of cold winter weather, aid workers and local officials warn.

“The already dire situation due to the armed conflict is being made worse by falling temperatures, particularly in Saada Governorate and surrounding areas,” said Rabab al-Rifai, spokesperson in Yemen for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which runs five IDP camps in Saada in cooperation with the Yemen Red Crescent (YRC).

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87646

Funds needed for displaced Zimbabweans

Photo: Tebogo Letsie/IRIN

Thousands of Zimbabweans were dispaced when xenophobic violence erupted in 2008

(IRIN) – The number of Zimbabweans displaced after some of their shacks in an informal settlement outside De Doorns, a farming town about 140km from Cape Town, South Africa, were attacked and demolished by local South African residents, has risen to about 3,000, said the South African Red Cross Society.

The Red Cross has appealed for R2 million (about US$270,880) to help provide urgently needed blankets, water, food, first-aid kits, toiletries, clothing, fuel for transport, and logistical support for the displaced.

Red Cross spokesman Kelvin Glen told IRIN that the aid agency had responded to a call for help by local authorities on 15 November to provide meals and blankets for about 80 people, “but the numbers have risen since”. Most of the displaced are being sheltered in a marquee tent pitched on the local sports ground.

More Zimbabweans fled following attacks by local residents early in the morning of 17 November. The South Africans were unhappy that local farm owners were employing Zimbabweans, according to police at De Doorns. The situation was stable at the moment, said the police.

Jose’s story: a message of hope

By Sarah Oughton

For political reasons, Jose Mputu was forced to flee the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006. He came to the UK as a refugee, but had to leave behind his wife and eight children. As fighting in the Congo escalated, the Red Cross supported Jose through the trauma of losing contact with his family and helped him to find them again. Listen to his story.

Sarah:

Have you ever called and called a loved one but they just don’t answer the phone? There’s no reasonable explanation for their silence and you’re convinced something terrible has happened.

For most of us this is just a short lived panic, but for others losing contact with their family becomes a living nightmare. Imagine not knowing if your family is alive or dead, or how you will ever find them.

The British Red Cross tracing and message service is part of a global Red Cross network, which searches for missing family members and puts them back in touch when they have been separated due to conflict or disaster.

I’m Sarah Oughton, international writer at the British Red Cross and this is the story of Jose Mputu, who, for political reasons, was forced to flee the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006. He came to the UK as a refugee, but had to leave behind his wife and eight children.

Jose:

First of all, I had a very happy life with my family. We were very close and I didn’t used to go out. I was after my occupation, come back home, stay with my wife, children, talk about the life, education, project everything. But suddenly I was obliged to leave, leave them.

But it was uncommon for me because, you know you are close in family and suddenly you’re out, living alone, in fear for yourself, for them, and I was very disturbed and I was having some nightmare about my family, about my future.

Sarah:

During this time, Jose was watching the conflict in the Congo unfold on the TV. He saw people were fleeing all over the place, some were being killed and he knew anything could have happened to his family. He was very disturbed and sought help from his GP.

Jose:

I have some mental trouble. I went here to see my GP and he referred me to a psychiatrist, a community one, taking care for people in the community. And then he prescribed me a high level of medicine, about post-traumatic trouble, disorder. I was taking these medicines.

But many times at night I couldn’t sleep quietly, thinking a lot, about my family, because, you know my family is my life. In Africa, family is your life, is your future, your children is your future. Now I was in conflict, between myself and my situation.

Sarah:

When the medications didn’t help him, Jose returned to his GP who told him he needed emotional support.

Jose:

For Red Cross I heard from my friend that there’s a service here about asylum seeker that can help about clothing because I didn’t have anything. I was coming here as a beneficiary. I saw that the service is very helpful. I started coming very regularly. Sometimes to play with friends. It was making me a little bit happy when I am meeting people who are friendly. You make a new life and I applied to become a volunteer.

One day I saw this leaflet about separated families. I started reading it. And I saw that there is enough information for…because I’m concerned, I’m in this case as well. I have lost contact with my family and I can contact this service to find out how can they help me about, to renew contact with my family.

Now, I seek advice from Francis and Edward. I have read a leaflet about separated people, how can I do. And they said, yes you have to find a complete address. Now you have to write a letter in a Red Cross form, official form, but you can’t write about political issue only family news, because we are a neutral organisation.

So okay I wrote the message, I gave it to Edward and he sent. I ask him, how long will it take? Because I’m not comfortable, I need to hear something from them. He said, I don’t know maybe one month, two months. So okay at least I have written something, I was waiting for.

One day, Edward phoned me. “You know Jose, I have received a reply from your wife.”

Oh my God, it was that the most good information I have received this day. When I saw the message I saw the handwriting of my wife. I know, it was very wonderful, because it is the most wonderful thing I have received today. And my wife wrote something inside. A message for hope. And I grabbed, I hold the letter in my hand, it was like I am kissing her. I said, oh my God. God you’re wonderful! Because I didn’t believe it was coming to me.

Sarah:

A Red Cross message is an open letter containing family news. During a conflict, the neutrality of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement means we are able to pass these messages across borders and conflict lines when other forms of communication are not working.

Our ability to deliver messages depends on the information you can provide and local circumstances, including the security situation, in the relevant country.

If you would like to send a Red Cross message to your family, please contact your local Red Cross office.

For further information visit redcross.org.uk/trace

Sarah Oughton writes about all things international for the website and publications at the British Red Cross.

British Red Cross accused of discrimination

By John Plummer

A former British Red Cross employee has claimed she was unfairly dismissed by the humanitarian organisation and suffered race, age and disability discrimination.

Rutherford, who lives and worked in Essex, was offered the opportunity to apply for other positions at the charity’s centre at Beckenham, Kent but refused to apply.

She claimed the move would add three hours to her daily commute and £76 per month travel costs and that she should have been offered more suitable opportunities that made it easier for her to care for her disabled husband.

She also claimed that the London branch of the British Red Cross was getting rid of a lot of older women and that the consultation period for redundancies, which affected 17 other members of staff, was “a sham”.

Rutherford, a black woman of Guyanese origin, claims she would have been treated differently had she been a white woman.

Two former British Red Cross employees have agreed to support her as witnesses.

Pamela Chapman, operations manager for the London area of the British Red Cross, told the tribunal at Stratford, East London, that Rutherford had been treated no differently than any other member of staff. “A genuine redundancy situation appeared to exist,” said Chapman. “The claimant alleges the consultation was a sham. It was not.”

She said the charity had extended the consultation period and appointed an independent manager to oversee the restructuring process. “I absolutely refute any allegation of discrimination,” said Chapman.

The hearing is scheduled to finish on Friday.

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