Hackney Migrant Centre annual report 2016 by Inside Hackney

Hackney Migrant Centre Annual Report 2016

a place for migrants

Hackney Migrant Centre Annual Report 2016

about us

Hackney Migrant Centre is a small charity running a weekly drop-in advice service for vulnerable migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in Stoke Newington. We provide high-quality advice on immigration, welfare, housing and access to health services. Each week we serve our visitors a hot and nutritious meal cooked by our volunteer kitchen team. Hackney Migrant Centre was eﬆablished in 2008 by local people concerned by the lack of advice and support services for migrants. Since then, we have seen a ﬆeady increase in visitors coming to our weekly session. We have a very small ﬆaﬀ team and rely on the tireless dedication of our many wonderful volunteers, and the support of a range of partner agencies.

We welcome all migrants regardless of immigration ﬆatus or nationality.

Hackney Migrant Centre Annual Report 2016

The political landscape has changed fundamentally from a year ago, with the vote to leave the European Union. There is an argument that the vote reflected, among other things, years of growing public hoﬆility towards migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, as successive governments introduce ever more punitive legislation and sections of the media continue to demonise and scapegoat incomers. For Hackney Migrant Centre, the impact was immediate – we saw an overnight increase in the number of visitors from the European Union, fearful for their future. As always, it will be the moﬆ vulnerable who suffer: those ﬆruggling to find work, those who are poor, with young families. Meanwhile, the Immigration Act 2016 included more ﬆringent criminal sanctions for employers who hire illegal migrants, and the ability to freeze the bank accounts of migrants who do not have permission to be in the UK or to seize their driver’s license. All migrants will be subjected to the government’s ‘deport firﬆ, appeal later’ scheme, which means any migrant who has made a human rights or asylum claim can now be removed to their home country pending the outcome of their appeal againﬆ the decision to remove them, unless such removal would cause them ‘serious, irreversible harm’.

The Act also contained a measure to relocate unaccompanied refugee children in Europe to Britain. There was no move to implement this measure until pressure following the deﬆruction of the camps in Calais in October 2016 forced the government to respond. Desperate people continue to make the dangerous journey to Europe across the Mediterranean Sea from Libya. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that 4,220 people have died or gone missing at sea in 2016, up from 3,771 reported for the whole of 2015. In laﬆ year’s annual report, we asked whether this could be the beginning of a new era of compassion for people in exile. We clearly ﬆill have a very long and hard road ahead.

migration

Hackney Migrant Centre Annual Report 2016

‘Coming to Hackney Migrant Centre was the ﬁrﬆ time I ate properly. I was cold, and it felt like I had come to a warm place. The centre gave me expenses of £20 and it felt like a million – I had nothing. After juﬆ two weeks I became involved at the centre, working in the kitchen. I had been a business man so I had no experience of kitchen work, but I learnt on the job! The food is from donations – we make one meat and one vegetarian dish for visitors. Working here was a good support – it made me feel ﬆronger. Before I was desperate – I felt abandoned. I now have a job, but whatever I do I plan to continue working in this kitchen, and giving back to Hackney Migrant Centre.’

josecharles Jose-Charles came to London from the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2012, where he was imprisoned for his political activities. Because of issues with his asylum claim, Jose-Charles had absolutely no income for six months. He now manages our kitchen at the drop-in and is a member of our board of truﬆees.

Hackney Migrant Centre Annual Report 2016

our year The biggeﬆ demand on our service continues to be immigration advice. Many of our visitors want to regularise their immigration ﬆatus but legal aid for this is generally unavailable, so applicants also have to pay legal coﬆs on top of conﬆantly rising fees for immigration applications. Migrants applying for Limited Leave to Remain (30 months only) have to pay a Health Surcharge of £500 on top of an application fee of £811 per person. Without free immigration advice at our drop-in, many of our visitors would be unable to obtain any legal help for further immigration claims.

Our partner, Islington Law Centre, took on the immigration cases of 17 of our visitors, and over 100 others were directed to other reputable solicitors. Given that very few projects provide pro bono legal support, we are increasingly requeﬆing legal aid funding for particularly exceptional cases which do not come under the usual eligibility criteria. We submitted almoﬆ 20 of these applications in the paﬆ year. This year we launched a new ﬁve-year ‘Moving out of Hardship’ project, generously funded by the Big Lottery Fund. We are excited to be collaborating with Coram Children’s Legal Centre and Haringey Migrant Support Centre in this. The scheme has enabled us to employ a second welfare caseworker and provided funds for an immigration solicitor specialising in working with families. By the end of the ﬁrﬆ year the project aims to have provided shortterm interventions to over 500 families, and follow-up casework to over 200 of them.

Hackney Migrant Centre Annual Report 2016

This year 833 people attended our weekly Wednesday drop-in, making a total of 2330 separate visits.

April 2015 – March 2016

We provided:

Our visitors:

738 consultations with immigration specialiﬆs

came from about 80 countries

265 welfare consultations with our in-house deﬆitution adviser

more than half have no recourse to public funds which means they have no rights to moﬆ mainﬆream beneﬁts or public housing 264 (almoﬆ 1/3) were visa overﬆayers, 121 (almoﬆ 1/6) were refused asylum seekers, while about 65 have Limited Leave to Remain, which allows them to work but not to claim beneﬁts. Many have children and are unable to work and so become deﬆitute.

59 health advocacy consultations 405 hardship grants of £20 to visitors in crisis Our volunteers: helped ﬁll out 123 HC1 forms to obtain free prescriptions to which anyone on low incomes is entitled referred almoﬆ 100 of our visitors to emergency accommodation (winter night shelters) and hoﬆels obtained individual grants totalling almoﬆ £23,000 to buy basic necessities for 193 visitors and their families – an average of nearly £120 per grantee

Hackney Migrant Centre Annual Report 2016

beatrice ‘When I came to Hackney Migrant Centre I felt half dead. They made me feel hope when I had no hope. They made me ﬆrong, psychologically, emotionally and physically. They gave me some food and a little money from the hardship fund, as well as wonderful encouragement and advice. Recently I have become involved with the Natural Resilience Project – with a group of other women and our children we go to the wetlands and become immersed in nature. We do activities and we are given assignments such as ﬁnding oak leaves. It makes us forget our problems, and the children can play all together. I am happy because of that project – it makes me feel on top of the world.’ Beatrice came to London from Nigeria in 2011. She was forced to leave the place she was ﬆaying in the UK due to miﬆreatment. She is working with Hackney Migrant Centre to regularise her immigration ﬆatus.

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volunteers Volunteers are absolutely integral to the running of our service and there are usually more than 20 at each drop-in session. Many people have been with us for years but we also regularly recruit new volunteers as others move on in their lives. Over the course of the laﬆ year over 90 volunteers welcomed our visitors, provided advocacy support for them, made them tea and coﬀee, collected food and cooked meals for everyone at the drop-in – no mean feat! Volunteers also help with follow-up work in our oﬃce and we are pleased that a growing number are former visitors to our drop-in.

We depend on volunteers to continue the vital work we do.

Hackney Migrant Centre Annual Report 2016 11

Volunteer’s report ‘When I applied to be a volunteer at Hackney Migrant Centre, I said that I wanted to learn how to help. During the firﬆ weeks, while shadowing an experienced volunteer, I was told that one of the moﬆ helpful things we can do is liﬆen. Giving the visitors access to free legal advice and deﬆitution support is crucial, and getting them to the right adviser is dependent on the volunteer’s ability to liﬆen, to unravel the narrative in a chaotic ﬆory, and on helping a visitor to identify their own key queﬆions. Liﬆening isn’t always easy. Sometimes the ﬆories are hard to bear, when someone has been abused, trafficked, or has witnessed horrific things. And sometimes the room we work in is incredibly noisy, and it can be hard to catch a soft voice, an unfamiliar accent. Yet the cacophony also creates a kind of privacy. No one else is liﬆening in. And with perseverance and patience on both sides, a visitor can find a way to tell their ﬆory. Because at the Migrant Centre, I was happy to discover, we don’t judge. There are no more or less deserving migrants, no queues separating good from bad, no refusals unless someone excludes themselves through abusive language and behaviour.

Often there are useful things I can do – a letter to a school, a foodbank voucher, or apply for a small grant, find a bed in a hoﬆel. But sometimes there’s little that can be done to offer immediate relief. Hoﬆels are full, grants take months to arrive. Our own hardship fund is tiny. It can be very tough, but a highlight is eating lunch with our visitors. It’s brilliantly prepared by a skilled international team, who turn whatever has been donated into inventive hot meals, as well as salads and endless loaves of bread. Sometimes even cakes and scones myﬆeriously appear. When the session is over, all of the tables are put away, files locked in a cupboard, carpets hoovered. Like a circus once the tents are ﬆruck, you’d never know we’d been there. Except for the odd scattered crumb. Which juﬆ might be the seed of someone’s problem being solved, the ﬆart of a sense of security.’

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‘I came here because I had problems with my visa, and because of this I am homeless. I am waiting for an operation on my hip and another on my eye, but they can’t be done at present because I have no safe place to go to recover when I am ready to be discharged from hospital. I have no money, and I find it difficult to get food. I have nothing to eat unless I come here. I can’t sleep when I’m outside, so I sleep on the bus on the way here. I slept for a few minutes on the way to the centre today. Things are difficult and my cough is very bad. But people are very nice to me here – they are very good people.’

frederick Frederick came to London from Accra in Ghana in 2001. He is in poor health and was until recently a rough sleeper. Hackney Migrant Centre is working to ﬁnd accommodation for Frederick, but there are few options for people in his situation.

Hackney Migrant Centre Annual Report 2016 13

14 Hackney Migrant Centre Annual Report 2016

our casework Signiﬁcant changes to immigration and welfare legislation in the laﬆ 5 years have resulted in a 70% increase in the number of single-parent families experiencing deﬆitution seen at Hackney Migrant Centre.

We are able to assiﬆ with the practical work of ﬁnding a solicitor, accessing housing through social services support under the Children Act 1989, ﬁnding places in homeless shelters and hoﬆels and providing access to free food via food banks and soup kitchens. We also refer people to places such as the Akwaaba Sunday social centre in Hackney, where they can access social support, learning opportunities and free recreational events.

Hackney Migrant Centre now has two ﬆaﬀ members who, alongside our volunteer advocates, are dedicated to working with people experiencing deﬆitution. Some 89% of families with No Recourse to Public Funds are single-parent families, mainly headed by mothers, and often with one or more children. We see over 20 women per month who are in this situation, and the vaﬆ majority are single mothers.

This summer, Hackney Migrant Centre collaborated in the Natural Resilience Project, to address the social and psychological impacts of being undocumented and living in poverty by encouraging relaxation and wellbeing through connecting with nature. The project worked with 10 single mums and was a huge success, with participants reporting ‘now that we’ve poured this out we can go home lighter’ and, after one session, ‘I haven’t slept as well as this in months.’

These women often deal with rogue landlords and live in overcrowded houses which are in poor condition, or they may have been pushed to sofa surﬁng/ﬆreet homelessness. They are at increased risk of sexual exploitation, may have already experienced sexual violence and have poor mental health due to ﬆrains of living on the margins of society.

Hackney Migrant Centre is looking forward to further collaboration with the Natural Resilience Project and other forms of creative partnership in 2016/17. Anna Rudd Deﬆitution Coordinator

Hackney Migrant Centre Annual Report 2016 15

our info Hackney Migrant Centre St Mary’s New Church Rooms Spensley Walk London N16 9ES

Staﬀ (since April 2015)

07504 332 706 info@hackneymigrantcentre.org.uk www.hackneymigrantcentre.org.uk

Gerry Hickey (until December 2015)

Charity number: 1122363 Company number: 06426744

Giulia Gosi

Helen Hibberd (currently on maternity leave) Daf Viney

Anna Rudd Truﬆees: Chair Rayah Feldman Vice chair Mark Palframan

In 2015–2016 we received £177,335 in income, and incurred expenditure of £144,051 in running coﬆs and £30,006 hardship and individual grants payments. Expenditure Staﬀ Drop-in coﬆs

44% 11%

Advice

34%

Other

11%

Treasurer Roy Hiscock Secretary Dot Lewis Jose-Charles Makassa Carla Montemayor Wendy Pettifer Rosemary Sales (resigned 2016) Hannah Ward

thank you Harveﬆ N16

Thanks to the following organisations for funding our work:

Thanks to organisations for individual grants to our moﬆ vulnerable visitors:

Growing Communities

Clothworkers Foundation

Catholic Women’s League

Jaines & Son Fishmonger

Dentons CSR Charitable Truﬆ

Hackney Parochial Charities

Mediterranean Supermarket

Eaﬆ End Community Foundation – Hackney Giving

Heinz, Anna and Carol Kroch Foundation

Garden Court Chambers

Hornsey Parochial Charity

Greggs Foundation

Mary Strand Truﬆ

Hackney Community Law Centre

Methodiﬆ Church Fund

London Catalyﬆ

Society of Friends of Foreigners in Diﬆress

Thanks for their generous food donations to:

Nawaal Fund Stoke Newington Tea Rooms Spence Bakery Whole Foods Stoke Newington Thanks to advisers from: City and Hackney Mind Coram Children’s Legal Centre Doctors of the World Hackney Community Law Centre Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Truﬆ Islington Law Centre

London Community Foundation – Dispossessed Fund London Legal Support Truﬆ Metropolitan Migration Foundation MSN Fund

Lambeth Law Centre

The Hackney Parochial Charities

Project 17

Truﬆ for London Tudor Truﬆ Weﬆ Hackney Parochial Charity and to many individuals for their donations

Sheila Hind Truﬆ

South Hackney Parochial Charity Weﬆ Hackney Parochial Charity Special thanks Thank you to St Mary’s Church who continue to be generous hoﬆs of the Centre. Big thanks to our volunteers from Stoke Newington School – Ella, Alina, Sebaﬆian, Celia and Victoria – who help us tidy and clean after each drop-in. A huge thank you to all of our wonderful regular volunteers.