What can you do?

Teach English

Run a drop-in centre

Open your home

Visit a detention centre

Read something

Volunteer

Write a letter

Raise awareness

Start a football team

Fix a bike

Buy in bulk

Use your hobbies

Teach English

You don’t have to be a professional teacher to help someone with their English. You can teach someone really useful, practical English from the everyday things around you, or you can use the Afraid to Leave, Afraid to Stay booklet or the Bible. Find out about other resources we have in our resources section, which is right here.

Back to the top

Run a drop-in centre

Many churches are doing this already, and there are many different ways to do it. One church opened their doors on a Thursday evening for a social, and soon had a regular group of Iranian table tennis devotees.

Other churches provide English lessons, childcare mornings, computer classes, or free lunches. Some just provide an opportunity to chat and meet people, and this is invaluable in itself for an isolated refugee.

Some churches take it a step further and have developed small distribution centres. A church in Glasgow opens up their church hall once a week to sell second hand clothes, toys and household items at rock bottom prices.

Back to the top

Open your home

“Asylum seekers don't expect handouts and are usually fiercely independent,” writes a Pastor in Stoke on Trent. “But they do like being invited into a person's home and have a real need for someone to act as mother and father to them.”

Opening up your home to asylum seekers makes it clear that they are welcome, appreciated, and that they belong. It is a taste of normal life, and a chance for them to be part of a family. And you might make some life-long friends in the process.

It may have a wider impact than you think, as it also makes a statement to neighbours and those around you, that asylum seekers are not to be feared or avoided.

How can you make an asylum seeker feel welcome? How about a games evening? A meal round at your house? Sunday lunch? Make sure they don’t get left out of the normal social life of your community.

Back to the top

Visit a detention centre

There are over 1,000 asylum seekers detained in Britain at any one time, either in detention centres or in prisons. They are held without charge, for an average of around two months. Some have overstayed their visas, some have been refused asylum; very few have committed actual criminal offences. In some cases, the detainees may have been living and working in Britain for several years, and the paperwork finally catches up with them. Other detainees have been allowed to remain in the UK as children, but are arrested right after their 18th birthday.

Many churches or charities run visits to detention centres. You can find out where the centres are and who visits them here

And if you’re wondering what such a visit would be like, there’s a useful FAQ here.

Back to the top

Read something

A lot of the problems around the asylum and immigration debates are more to do with public perception than actual movements of people. For example, in a poll for the Refugee Council, young people estimated that Britain hosts about 31% of the world’s refugees. The misinformation is remarkable: Britain hosts less than 2% of the world’s refugees!

Christians have a real opportunity to be voices of compassion in the asylum debate, rather than caught up in the media hysteria. But for that we need to make sure we’re informed.

Try reading ‘Human Cargo’ by Caroline Moorehead for some real life stories, or ‘Asylum and Immigration: A Christian perspective on a polarised debate’ by Nick Spencer.

Back to the top

Volunteer

You don’t have to start something from scratch in order to reach out to asylum seekers. There are many ways you can help out with existing refugee agencies. Enabling Christians in Serving Refugees (ECSR) is a network that does exactly what its name suggests. They have a directory of local and national organisations on their website: www.ecsr.org.uk. Have a look and see who’s working near you.

If you live near a detention centre, there will be local organisations working there. For details about how you could help, check the ECSR website, or the Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees (AVID)

You could also help with an anti-deportation campaign. Many churches have done this independently, when a refugee member among them has been refused asylum. Some have won their cases and have seen their friends given a reprieve. You may know an individual or a family who could use your help, or you could join the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns

Back to the top

Write a letter

You may want to consider writing to your MP about the issues of asylum and immigration. This could be about local issues, or nationwide policy. AVID, or the Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees, has a list of lobbying addresses on their website.

If you don’t know who your MP is, or if you need their address, you can find out in seconds on www.writetothem.com

If you would prefer to join an established campaign, a number of national and international organisations are involved in lobbying for a fairer asylum system. You can join some of the following organisations to support these campaigns: www.amnesty.org.uk or www.ncadc.org.uk

Back to the top

Raise awareness

What could you do to raise awareness of asylum and immigration issues within your church, house group or youth group? Many Christians have never thought about how they could reach out to asylum seekers. How about running a refugee action Sunday at church? The UN Refugee Week is 20th – 26th of June, so lots of organisations prepare resources around that time, but you could hold it any time during the year.

There are ideas and materials, and an introduction to what the Bible says about refugees, in the reflect page.

Alternatively, you could run a series in smaller groups, and use the study notes from the Jubilee Centre. They’re available as free downloads here.

Simplest of all, you could send this page to a friend.

Back to the top

Start a football team

The majority of asylum seekers are young men. A good way to get together and get to know them would be to invite them along to play football. A lot of them play already. Could you start a church team, or set up a tournament?

You never know who you could end up playing with – several former international footballers have claimed asylum in recent years, and at least one player has been discovered and signed as a professional since being granted asylum.

And if football isn’t your sport of choice, you can do the same with basketball or cricket. Refugee Action’s Wellbeing Project supports a number of football teams, but also swimming lessons and gym classes. It all helps people make friends, keep busy, and stay healthy.

Back to the top

Fix a bike

Here’s an innovative idea from the Clear Project in Southampton. They appeal for second hand bikes from donors around the city, and then fix them up at a workshop on Tuesday afternoons. Participating asylum seekers help with the renovations, and go home with a free bike at the end of the day!

Clear Project run the workshops as a regular event, but it would work just as well as a one-off. All you need is some tools and spares, a bike enthusiast, and few people willing to search their sheds and garages for unused bikes.

Read more about Clear Project's bike workshops here.

Back to the top

Buy in bulk

Studies have shown that it is difficult to maintain a healthy diet on income support. The financial support that asylum seekers receive amounts to 70% of income support – around £38 a week for an adult, to cover all their expenses.

St Rollox church in Glasgow, along with student volunteers from Glasgow University, run a co-operative on Tuesdays in the church halls. Asylum seekers can make their allowances go a little further by buying cheap fruit and vegetables.

You could do something similar by buying from a wholesalers, along with others in the church, and providing groceries at a knock-down price.

(For another event – get your church or housegroup to live for a week on a budget of £38. Share your experiences with each other and learn together why initiatives such as the one above are so important!)

Back to the top

Put your hobbies into action

Have a think about how your own interests or hobbies could be put to good use: A group in Southampton ran therapeutic fishing lessons and music workshops. The Wellbeing Projects’ activities include arts and crafts, drama, and dance. In Tower Hamlets a group of Rwandan women run knitting lessons. How about cooking lessons and a meal together, getting different people to teach something from their country?

A group in Devon share their allotments with asylum seekers. It’s a great way to get out, meet people, do something productive, get exercise, and work together, all rolled into one. And there’s free vegetables at the end!

In London the REWRITE group run creative writing initiatives for young refugees, while Asylum Welcome in Oxford took young asylum seekers out around the town with cameras and put together a photography exhibition. Some of the participants had never taken a picture before.

Back to the top

Got an idea of your own? Tried one of these ideas and want to share what you've learned? Tell us about it and we'll add it to the list: email