Refugee Action: Helping the Refugee Crisis

Introduction:

The need for refugee resettlement has seen a huge increase over the years. The
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates
that more than 2 million refugees will need resettlement in the year 2023, which
shows a 36% increase rate compared to 1.47 million in 2021.1

Refugee Action is an established charity organisation based in the UK, built in order
to help refugees by providing basic support to live. Refugee Action has helped many
refugees from all over the world build brand new lives in the UK since they were
founded in 1981, with their main vision being “Refugees & asylum seekers will be
welcome in the UK. Will get justice, live free of poverty, and will be able to
successfully rebuild their lives.”

In 2019/20, Refugee Action has helped 875 refugees rebuild their lives in the UK,
mobilised over 150,000 people to take campaign actions, supported over 3,000
people to access housing & support and provided training and support to over 90
organisations.2

Movements such as Refugee Action are important in order to make a difference in

helping correct issues relating to refugee resettlement and this portfolio aims to
explore the different ways in which they do this.

Social Justice Theory:

Rights, opportunities and availability of resources are topics related to asylum

seekers and refugees. These are heavily discussed in theories of social justice,
specifically how these should be distributed in society.

1 Latest issues (2020) The Refugee Brief. Available at: https://www.unhcr.org/refugeebrief/latest-

issues/ (Accessed: January 4, 2023).
2 What we do (2020) Refugee Action. Available at: https://www.refugee-action.org.uk/what-we-do/

(Accessed: January 4, 2023).

According to the liberal perspective, social justice is defined as the ‘protection and
enactment of moral principles that allow people to have access to equal treatment,
opportunity and freedom.’ (John Rawls)

The basic freedoms principle in Rawls’ Theory of Justice states that “Each person
has an equal claim to a fully adequate scheme of basic rights and liberties, which
scheme is compatible with the same scheme for all; and in this scheme the equal
political liberties, and only those liberties, are to be guaranteed their fair value”.3 This
shows that all individuals should be given equal rights and liberties such as the right
to vote, and the right to own property, and this should include all refugees and all
individuals seeking asylum.

Rawls also shared eight principles that should be followed to help reduce injustices.
One of which is ‘Peoples have a duty to assist other peoples living under
unfavourable conditions that prevent their having a just or decent political and social
regime’. This is important as it shows that Rawls advocates that as humans have a
responsibility to help others out, just as refugees and asylum should be offered help
in order to escape.

Strategy:

Refugee Action has put in place ambitious new goals and objectives for their 2019-
2022 strategy4. Striving for systemic changes, Refugee Action aims to let their work
be

3 Mohamed, M.H. (2018) protection and enactment of moral principles that allow people to have
access to equal treatment, opportunity and freedom. . thesis.
4 Our 2019-22 strategy - refugee action (no date). Available at: https://www.refugee-action.org.uk/wp-

content/uploads/2019/05/Refugee-Action-Strategy-Document_Web-version.pdf (Accessed: January 4,

2023).
influenced by ‘those with lived experience of the asylum process and as a refugee in
the UK.’ They aim to shift the power to refugees and increase refugee representation
in their working staff and board.

Refugee Action has a written mission to ‘secure systemic change through (our)
campaigns to change government policies, (our) direct services, and our work to
strengthen and connect other service delivery organisations. (We) empower
refugees and people seeking asylum to influence both (our) work and decisions
made by government, and are a trusted partner for others who share our vision’. This
written mission shows a repeated theme of Refugee Action striving for systemic
change by aiming for action on a large scale, for example, from the UK government.

Refugee Action has set out 4 main objectives for 2019-22. First,‘a fair and effective
asylum system, in which people access justice and avoid destitution’. They aim to do
this through their various campaigns, supporting directly to implement improvements
systemically in the UK asylum system.

Secondly, ‘substantial improvements in services and outcomes for people in 3 areas

or regions through a planned, joined up and holistic approach by charities, local and
regional government’. They aim to do this through collaborating with partners in
these three areas (charities, local and regional government).

Thirdly, to ‘maintain and increase the number of refugees resettling in the UK, living
in safety and successfully rebuilding their lives’. To achieve this, they again will work
with the government to make sure that a refugee’s nationality does not impact their
ability to build a new life in the UK successfully. Refugee Action wants to empower
refugees to make their own choices in their futures, and seek to make policy
changes wherever necessary in order to ease this process.

Finally, their fourth objective is ‘increased refugee integration through securing a

substantial increase in the quantity and quality of English language provision and
enabling refugees to overcome barriers to employment’. They aim to achieve this by
focusing on two areas: delivering front-services, and using their past experience and
concerns of existing/past clients to better inform their campaigns and advocacy.
Designs and Success of Actions:

There are three main ways that Refugee Action works to achieve their objectives.
Firstly by providing direct services to refugees and asylum seekers, by campaigning,
and through a practice program aimed to increase the quantity and quality of support
offered to these individuals.

In their 2019-22 strategy booklet, Refugee Action has provided a ‘Theory of Change’.
In this they have placed a heavy emphasis on learning from their past experience as
an organisation and realising they have to make better use of the direct experiences
and voices of refugees and those seeking asylum, using this to better inform their
actions as an organisation. They realised that this should be the foundation and
starting ground when informing their campaigns (eg. influencing politicians and policy
makers, media engagement, popular mobilisation), refugee asylum and resettlement
services, and good practice, in order to make their actions more effective and create
a larger impact on society.

Refugee Action has worked on many campaigns as an organisation. A more recent

campaign is the ‘Fight the #AntiRefugeeLaws pledge”. The campaign is sparked by
the recent Nationality and Borders Act5, or also referred to as the “Anti-Refugee Bill”.
The bill stops asylum seekers from gaining protection in the UK, as well as no
access to financial support, limits their rights as individuals, and stops family
reunions. To help this Refugee Action has begun a pledge to challenge the anti-
refugee laws being put in place. This pledge has seen support from 384
organisations from all over the UK, as well as over 40 Parliamentarians having
already signed the pledge.6

Analysis of Impacts:

5Nationality and borders Bill - Bills.parliament.uk (no date). Available at:

https://bills.parliament.uk/publications/46276/documents/1756 (Accessed: January 6, 2023).
6 - fight the Anti Refugee Laws (2022) Fight the Anti Refugee Laws. Available at:

https://fighttheantirefugeelaws.org/#supporters (Accessed: January 6, 2023).

According to Refugee Action’s 2019-2020 Impact Report, they have helped 875
refugees to rebuild their lives in the UK, mobilised over 150,000 people to take
campaign actions, supported over 3,000 people to access housing & support and
provided training and support to over 90 organisations. Refugee Action had helped
towards giving refugees the right to work through direct interventions and nation-
wide campaigning, as well as partnering up with a network of like-minded
organisations. They have helped over 3,000 people in Greater Manchester, West
Midlands and London to access housing and support.

Working with 10 different partners to date, Refugee Action is developing a strong

network of Asylum Guides, volunteers trained to support people to navigate the
system. There are 72 trained, helping over 800 people, all of which will help improve
the support they are capable of giving to refugees navigating the asylum system.

Refugee Action has released 2 key reports in 2019-2020. Missing the Safety Net
(2019) was published by Refugee Action and the No Accommodation Network
(NACCOM). This report helped reveal that vulnerable people refused asylum in the
UK are being failed by the Government’s asylum support system. Lifting the ban:
common sense (2020) focuses on a ban on seeking employment that is still in place
in the UK for people seeking asylum, forcing them to live on just £5.66 per day. This
report shows the strength of the evidence in favour of giving people seeking asylum
the right to work. Reports such as these play a vital role in providing essential
knowledge regarding the current state of the UK asylum seekers, as well as
providing evidence and data to portray how unjust the system is.

On their website, Refugee Action has included many ‘testimonials’ from real life
refugees and asylum seekers whom they have helped throughout the years. This
provides a real insight as to just how big of an impact they have had on the real lives
of people from around the world.7

7 Impact 2020 (2021) Refugee Action. Available at: https://www.refugee-action.org.uk/impact-2020/

(Accessed: January 8, 2023).
Conclusion:

Based on the information gathered, it is clear that Refugee Action has had a
significant impact on helping refugees and asylum seekers seek safety and rebuild
their lives in the UK. They have done this through various ways such as campaigns,
advocacy, and direct action. Refugee Action has acted as a useful platform to inform
the community and encourage the local community to join in to help improve the UK
asylum system, and doing their part in order to eliminate ‘social injustice’. The work
of Refugee Action has immensely improved lives in the long term, and with how they
are reviewing and revising their plans, it is looking hopeful that they will continue to
do this for years to come.

Reflection:

Before this task, I had very limited knowledge of the UK asylum system. I decided to
find an organisation related to the refugee crisis as it is something that I wanted to
learn more about, given my limited knowledge. Upon researching, I came across
Refugee Action, a fairly large organisation that has been working on improving the
system since 1981. I was inspired by their long term commitment to the cause, and
the progress that they have achieved. I also found the statements that they have
collected from real life refugees they have helped, seeing how Refugee Action has
played a part in changing the course of their lives. Often, refugee and asylum
seekers and their experiences are minimised to a mere statistic or number. However,
reading their stories provided a real insight as to how a small action on our side can
make a large impact on others navigating the asylum system.

Having chosen to move to the UK alone to pursue my higher education in the recent
year myself, it has no doubt been difficult trying to adapt into a whole new country. I
cannot imagine just how amplified these feelings would be for someone who did not
have the freedom of choosing to be here, separated from family, and not granted
their basic rights and individuals. Having to adapt to a whole new country is already
difficult enough as it is, without having the entire government system essentially work
against you being here, which I feel is what asylum seekers are put through on a
daily basis today.
Refugee Action mentions making systemic changes in order to make a larger
change in the system for the long term. I found it frustrating how pertinent these
problems still are in this day and age despite the hard work of organisations such as
Refugee Action. For example, I was made aware of the recent ‘Anti-Refugee’ bill. It
was frustrating to see people in the position of power discounting the efforts of those
trying to make change, causing things to move backwards instead of progressing
forward. However, it is encouraging to see that more and more people are in support
of organisations such as Refugee Action, so that more change can be made through
collective power and support.

References:

Latest issues (2020) The Refugee Brief. Available at:

https://www.unhcr.org/refugeebrief/latest-issues/ (Accessed: January 4, 2023).
What we do (2020) Refugee Action. Available at: https://www.refugee-
action.org.uk/what-we-do/ (Accessed: January 4, 2023).
Mohamed, M.H. (2018) protection and enactment of moral principles that allow
people to have access to equal treatment, opportunity and freedom. . thesis.
Our 2019-22 strategy - refugee action (no date). Available at: https://www.refugee-
action.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Refugee-Action-Strategy-
Document_Web-version.pdf (Accessed: January 4, 2023).
Nationality and borders Bill - Bills.parliament.uk (no date). Available at:
https://bills.parliament.uk/publications/46276/documents/1756 (Accessed: January 6,
2023).
- fight the Anti Refugee Laws (2022) Fight the Anti Refugee Laws. Available at:
https://fighttheantirefugeelaws.org/#supporters (Accessed: January 6, 2023).
Impact 2020 (2021) Refugee Action. Available at: https://www.refugee-
action.org.uk/impact-2020/ (Accessed: January 8, 2023).