Delivering policy change is a fundamental part of the Helen Bamber Foundations (HBF)’s organisational strategy and a vital way of creating positive improvement to the lives of all survivors. This strategy sets out how we intend to achieve change and our priority areas for the coming year.
Over 100 charities from the refugee and children’s sectors wrote to the Prime Minister on January 26th 2023 to express their grave concern about separated children seeking asylum going missing from Home Office hotels. The children are suspected of being exploited and are accommodated outside of the UK’s child welfare framework which applies to all children, regardless of their immigration status.
This briefing summarises findings from two pieces of research, in which the Helen Bamber Foundation was involved, looking at people’s experiences of their substantive asylum interviews: • The texture of narrative dilemmas: Qualitative study in front-line professionals working with asylum seekers in the UK, 20211 • The challenges faced during Home Office interview when seeking asylum in the United Kingdom: An interpretative phenomenological analysis, 20222
This briefing provides a short overview of existing research on the challenges and the experience of legal aid providers in providing advice to clients 'remotely' rather than face to face.
The Bill of Rights Bill, or ‘Rights Removal Bill’, sought to scrap the HRA and replace people’s universal rights with those gifted by the government, whilst removing legal responsibility and accountability and introducing barriers to people actually having their rights upheld. This would affect us all, but would be particularly devastating for more marginalised groups, including survivors.
This report from HBF, written with NGOs Medical Justice, Anti Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit and Focus on Labour for Exploitation, highlights the health impact of detention on survivors of trafficking and that the government has deliberately put in place a system in which more trafficking victims will be locked up.
In this evidence, Asylum Aid and HBF set out concerns with the UK-Rwanda Memorandum of Understanding that allows for the relocation of people seeking asylum to Rwanda.
This briefing summarises some of the key findings from a 2018 systematic review carried out by the Helen Bamber Foundation in partnership with academics and experts, looking at the body of research on the impact and mental health consequences that immigration detention may have on adults, adolescents and child immigration detainees.
This report looks at the impact of housing people seeking asylum in barracks accommodation on their physical and mental health and makes recommendations for an asylum housing system that is 'fit for purpose'.
This submission looks at the basic needs provided for by asylum support payments and the most pressing issues that have been identified by HBF in relation to our clients. It calls for asylum support rates to be increased.
The Refugee and Migrant Children’s Consortium is appalled by, and entirely opposed to, the government’s plans to permanently remove people seeking asylum in the UK to Rwanda to have their claims processed, as well as live in Rwanda if their asylum claim is successful. In addition, we are extremely concerned that due to the government’s flawed approach to age disputes there is a significant risk that children will be removed to Rwanda.
This consultation response suggests a range of further ways in which the UK should respond to the mental health needs of refugees, people seeking asylum and survivors of trafficking.
