The Experts By Experience Podcast Refugee Action

Refugees and people seeking asylum regularly face multiple layered barriers while settling in the U.K., often preventing them from flourishing in their potential and fully regaining their confidence in our society.

The barriers manifest themselves on personal, social, cultural, financial and political levels.

We often hear about asylum seekers and refugees 'unwillingness' to integrate and contribute to society but less about the barriers they face from the moment they arrive in the U.K., which renders the integration relatively complex.

These barriers are the product of racism embedded within the U.K. immigration system that demonises migrants, particularly vulnerable people, seeking safety in this country. People are banned from seeking employment and have limited access to essential services because of their immigration status and, on top of all, harmful and toxic rhetoric politicians, media and policymakers perpetuate.

In this episode, the panellists delve into Removing Barriers to Power and dismantle existing barriers' main roots.



Azadeh Hosseini hosts this episode with the Refugee Action CEO, Tim Naor Hilton, alongside Mo Omar, the Refugee Action Head of EbE and Partnership, Mery, an EbE and a member of the Pathway to Work program and Halyma Begum, Global Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging, Equity and Culture Membership Manager at DIAL Global and one of the Refugee Action's trustees.


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2023 is almost over as the second season of the Experts by Experience Podcast season.

The past year was challenging for our sector, and the next year won't be easier. Regardless, our crowd is resilient and defiant and won't stop until justice prevails.



For the Christmas Special episode, we invited some of our wonderful supporters to join the panel and, share their Christmas traditions and experiences with our audience, and talk about their work and relationship with Refugee Action.



Azadeh Hosseini hosts this episode with guests Louisa Jones, one of our supporters who's supporting us through the Home Made project alongside Dr Charlotte Wilson and Sairah Rehman from the Co-Op Foundation, and Sam Harris and David Boyd from Legal firm Clifford Chance.



The Christmas music used in this episode is:

We Wish You a Merry Christmas by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/

Noel by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Artist: http://audionautix.com/



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We are back after almost two months of summer break.

In the UK, 105,522 people are living in what is called ‘asylum accommodation’. Of these, 56,029 are in what’s referred to as dispersal accommodation, and 49,493 are in temporary or ‘contingency’ accommodation in hotels. The legislation governs this are sections 98, 95, and 4 of the 1999 Immigration Act, which states that people who claim asylum in the UK should be provided with accommodation to prevent them from becoming homeless. Instead of providing housing through local authorities or housing associations, the Home Office has outsourced accommodation provision to private providers who operate on a profit-based model. Since 2019, three companies have held these contracts – Mears, Serco and Clearsprings Ready Homes. Although they carry out immigration functions and have statutory responsibilities, private providers aim to generate profit. The largest of these providers is Serco, a company specialising in prisons and detention, operating six adult prisons in the UK.

Tara Povey hosts this episode with panellists ⁠Dr Jonathan Darling⁠ , Elika Ansari, Raman and Daisy (not her real name), and they dismantle the UK dispersal policy and share their insights and personal experiences of dispersal accommodation.

Books mentioned in this episode are:

1- Systems of Suffering: Dispersal and the Denial of Asylum by Dr Jonathan Darling

2- The Five Stages of Moria: The Worst Refugee Camp on Earth by Elika Ansari



Azadeh Hosseini, the Communication and engagement officer at Refugee Action, produced and edited this episode.



If you like to take action, fight the hostile environment and support asylum seekers, please visit ⁠⁠Refugee Action.⁠⁠



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The Experts by Experience podcast celebrates National Poetry Day with the theme of Refuge in collaboration with Forward Arts Foundation.

Forward Arts Foundation is responsible for National Poetry Day, an annual mass celebration of poetry encouraging all to enjoy, discover and share poetry. As the art form’s most visible moment, it showcases how poetry adds value to society.



Poems penetrate our souls and touch the deepest parts of our hearts the way perhaps thousands of articles or news pieces cannot do so. Poets can communicate emotions directly to many and are an excellent tool for people with lived experiences in the asylum system to express their pains, trauma, and frustration.



Nicola Davies, an author and poet alongside Jason Thomas-Fournillier , an EbE, an LGBTQ+ campaigner and an active member of RAS voice with Sarah Croft, the Head of Drama at Litchfield Cathedral school, explores the admirable utility of a poem that lends itself to expressing such diverse emotions.



Books mentioned in this podcast are:


Choose Love⁠ by Nicola Davies (Author), Petr Horáček (Illustrator)
The Song That Sings Us by Nicola Davies (Author)
The Day War Came by Nicola Davies (Author), Rebecca Cobb (Illustrator)



Azadeh Hosseini, the Communication and engagement officer at Refugee Action, produced and edited this episode.

If you like to take action, fight the hostile environment and support asylum seekers, please visit ⁠⁠Refugee Action.⁠⁠



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People usually receive nationality automatically at birth, either through their parents or the country they are born in. Unfortunately, not everyone can enjoy the right to acquire a nationality: discrimination against particular ethnic or religious groups or gender, transfers of territory between existing States or the emergence of new States render statelessness.

According to UNHCR, "the international legal definition of a stateless person is a person who is not considered a national by any State under the operation of its law. In simple terms, this means that a stateless person does not have a nationality of any country. Some people are born stateless, but others become stateless."



The European Network of Statelessness hosts this episode, and the panellists Zoe Gardner, Ahmad Jaber, and Sirazul Islam joined in person, and Zully joined the panel live from a cafe in Istanbul.



The panel delves into statelessness and shares their experience as a stateless person and the U.K. asylum system.



Azadeh Hosseini, the Communication & Engagement officer at Refugee Action, produced and edited this episode.

If you like to take action, fight the hostile environment and support asylum seekers, please visit ⁠⁠Refugee Action.⁠⁠

Follow us on ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and ⁠⁠LinkedIn.

Identifying as LGBTQ+ is criminalised in over 70 countries. In some countries, just being yourself is punishable by death. People are subjected to violence and discrimination for simply being who they are from their own communities, families or government, leaving them at risk of abuse and discrimination. They seek safety in the UK, believing that here they’ll live freely, be safe and protected. But unfortunately, for many LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, the UK is not the end of the hardship.

This episode is hosted by Jason Thomas-Fournillier and Hein Aung Htet, with panellists Jessica and Reina. 

The panel share their experience being in the UK asylum system as LGBTQ+.



Jason is the founder and senior administrator of the Spectrum Rainbow Community social support group. His main work is social inclusiveness with the Doncaster community for their members. Hein is Refugee Action's Digital Communications Coordinator. Jessica and Reina are both members of the Spectrum Rainbow Community in Doncaster and In Time to be Out.

Produced and edited by Azadeh Hosseini, the Communication & Engagement officer at Refugee Action



If you like to take action, fight the hostile environment and support asylum seekers, please visit ⁠⁠Refugee Action.⁠⁠

Follow us on ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and ⁠⁠LinkedIn.