St. David’s Asylum Seeker Project
Background : Our response at St. David’s : Friday Morning reception
Centre
English Classes : How
you Can Help : Donations : Volunteering
Asylum Seekers are people who have fled their own country because of a serious threat to life or liberty. They may have been involved in political activities or have been wrongly accused by an unjust criminal system. They have left behind homes, often families and frequently professional careers because they are in great danger. Some have sold all their possessions in order to buy a passage to Britain.
Genuine Asylum Seekers are grieving for a homeland they have only left as a last resort. It will be their hope to return to their homeland when safer regimes are established.
Asylum Seekers must therefore be distinguished from those of safe and secure home backgrounds, coming from poor and underdeveloped countries to seek, a better standard of living in Britain.
Most seeking asylum in the UK arrive in the South of England and in recent years a large population has built up in the South east of England. Under new legislation introduced on 1st April 2000, the Government is dispersing Asylum seekers all over the UK. Families have very little choice about where they are dispersed to. Councils all over the UK are required to participate in this scheme
Glasgow City Council has sought to take a responsible approach, taking a large quota of Asylum Seekers to be housed in unused accommodation, under a financial arrangement with the Government, at no extra cost to the City, the Council has sought to pre-empt the activities of independent "Cowboy" agencies by taking groups and placing them where there is appropriate infrastructure of health and education services. Naturally this responsible policy places a strain on the city’s Health and Education Services.
Asylum Seekers receive a very meagre rate of 70% Income support, £10 per week being paid in cash, the rest in vouchers which are redeemable in participating shops, although the Vouchers Agency has ‘sold’ this system to shops on the basis that no change has to be given and at least one large store, Safeway, has refused to participate on the grounds that the system exploits Asylum Seekers.
The City’s largest allocation of Asylum Seekers is in Sighthill, with several other large Clusters in Housing Schemes and the intention that the second largest group will be located in our West End Area (embracing the Kingsway, Plean Street, Lincoln Avenue, Kestrel Road and Kirkton Avenue Flats the last three of which are within the Parish of St David’s Knightswood).
Since Knightswood has never previously had a large immigrant population this is a sensitive matter. Having fled their homelands in terror many Asylum Seekers have been victims of local violence in Glasgow’s Housing Schemes. While this has also been true of our West End Area, alternative trends have also been noted.
Most Asylum Seekers report that Glasgow people are generally friendly. Moreover, while some tenants, concerned at the deterioration in high rise life, have been considering moving out and have been increasingly anxious about the arrival of Asylum Seekers, some of the same people have praised their new Asylum Seeker neighbours for their friendliness, interest and hospitality and now find their landings to be friendlier and more hospitable places than before!
While the Government have been trying to establish a "Fast Track" system for processing applications, it is clear that Asylum Seekers will have to wait years in some cases to know whether they will be allowed to stay.
Until applications are dealt with they live on a very restricted income and are prohibited from seeking work. In the meantime having arrived in this country with little more than they stand up in and often very traumatised they have considerable needs for material, health and social support.
Since November 2000 the Friday Reception Centre has been opened from 10.00 a.m. to Noon almost every week.
The Aim of the Centre has been to welcome Asylum Seekers to the Area, offer a place where they can have a cup of tea and chat and have access to the distribution of clothes and household goods.
While we would like to be able to sit, chat and get to know Asylum Seekers, giving them Support, in practice, a disciplined system of appointments for access to material support has shaped the way in which our work has developed.
While the first arrivals at our Centre were mainly Iraqi Kurds, the 130 plus families now registered with us include those from Sri Lanka ( Tamil & Sengalese), Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran (Pharsee and Balochi), Turkey (Kurdish), Iraq (Kurdish & Arabic), Kosovo (Albanian), Estonia (Russian), Ziaire, Burundi and South Africa. There is therefore an understandable resemblance between St David’s Church Hall and the United Nations.
With new families arriving weekly, it is important to give them first access to the free clothes and household goods which are displayed in the large church hall. Thereafter "regulars" with appointments are given an opportunity. Those returning for fourth and subsequent appointments are given less frequent staggered appointments, although they are still welcome to join us for tea and chat.
Explaining this system across the language barriers is, of course, very difficult and there is a low level of understanding and tolerance of the appointment and queuing system. The expectation that those who arrive earliest, push in the door first and shout loudest will be taken first prevails, but we hope they are learning to trust us and our system.
At times there are expression of frustration and the task seems thankless. However, most visitors are warmly appreciative.
Our service is offered in the name of Jesus Christ. We hope to have simple Christian literature available in relevant languages. We would like folks to know that the friendship and help we try to give are offered in the name of God who has first loved us in Jesus Christ. It is our earnest desire that those who are in need would recognise the church as a place of unconditional welcome and the cross as a trustworthy symbol of God’s love.
In response to the need for basic English an English Class is now running on Thursday Evenings.
Thursday Evening 7.30 p.m. to 9.00p.m.
This group is for men and women with games for children held simultaneously in the adjoining hall.
Mr Edward Momo, an experienced teacher, puts the visitors through a range of useful exercises to teach basic words and phrases necessary for everyday life.
A team of volunteers (not qualified teachers) give valuable assistance by sitting with the "pupils" Chatting, reading, and repeating phrases.
Please donate any of the following:
NOTE: This is a long term weekly project and a weekly commitment is exhausting. Volunteers are encouraged to offer themselves on a rota basis weekly (if very determined), fortnightly or monthly.