We’ve launched a Winter Appeal to support refugees in urgent need. As temperatures drop, more and more people who have fled war, torture and persecution are facing homelessness this winter. Your donations could help change lives. Please give what you can to help people who are struggling to survive. The Home Office is hurriedly trying to clear the ‘backlog’ of asylum cases. These changes mean that people who have been granted refugee status are being given as little as seven days to leave their accommodation and find somewhere new to live. It is an impossible situation which has been made wors ..read more

Refugee Festival Scotland 2024 will run from 14-23 June – and the theme is RISE. Every year, people arrive in Scotland after being forced to abandon their homes and flee to safety. Every day, we see individuals rise above the challenges and uncertainty they are faced with and begin rebuilding their lives. Next year’s festival theme seeks to honour the resilience, courage and talents of New Scots. It promotes a vision for society where everyone can blossom and has an equal opportunity to flourish. Refugee Festival Scotland celebrates the caring, creative and diverse spaces where integration hap ..read more

Join us for a live performance and Q+A to celebrate the debut EP  دیگر سایه ای در کار نیست  (No More Shadows) from Iranian singer and musician, Aref Ghorbani. The work was commissioned by Cross Borders, our programme of arts and cultural activism projects. No More Shadows will be released on BandCamp and YouTube on the 21st November. Aref will celebrate the EP launch with a live performance followed by a Q&A on the 29th of November at Drygate, Glasgow. Aref will perform with some of his closest collaborators, bringing together cultures, stories and music in a celebration of the h ..read more

Meet our new colleague Susi! Susi joins our team as Training and Development Officer. She brings a wealth of experience in training and helping people achieve their goals. Tell us little bit about yourself  I’ve been working here at the Scottish Refugee Council for just five or six weeks. Previously, I was working with the Prince’s Trust in a similar role, delivering training and casework to young people. The focus of that role was to support young people starting their businesses. I enjoyed the role and loved training and supporting people to achieve their goals. However, my interest lie ..read more

We welcome the news that the Supreme Court has declared the removal of people to Rwanda to be unlawful. The plan was part of a wider, deeply troubling hostile environment towards people who have come to the UK seeking sanctuary. People have been living with the threat of removal to Rwanda hanging over them for the last year, and have told us how this fear has affected them and their loved ones. We hope, rather than scrambling to find a Plan B, the UK government immediately starts to repair the damage done to our asylum system and drops any efforts to force this or a similar scheme through. The ..read more

The campaign for free bus travel in Scotland for people seeking asylum is a step closer to becoming reality. Maryhill Integration Network and the Voices Network have led the powerful campaign for the change, which would make a huge difference to lives of people experiencing the asylum system. People seeking asylum who are in institutional accommodation have only £1.30 a day to live on. A day pass for a Glasgow bus is now £5. Allowing people to travel for free means they would no longer have to make impossible decisions between buying food for themselves and their families, and travelling to he ..read more

The Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland has called for an end to the use of hotels for children and families in the asylum system, stating that housing children in hotels ‘violates their human rights’. The commission has released a new report that highlights how this type of accommodation exacerbates existing traumas and can have a detrimental impact on people’s mental health. The report calls for more support for local authorities, asylum accommodation providers, and frontline workers to reduce and mitigate the harm caused to children by these potentially hostile environments. N ..read more

We welcome the powerful findings in the Human Rights of Asylum Seekers in Scotland report which was published this week by the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee. The report contains contributions from people who have experienced the asylum system first-hand, and includes insights from a number of Scottish refugee and human rights organisations  including ourselves, Maryhill Integration Network, Refuweegee, Refugees For Justice and Just Right Scotland. The report identifies areas of major concern such as unsuitable accommodation, access to information and transport affor ..read more

The asylum system is tough and people seeking refugee protection sometimes fall through the cracks. We offer practical advice and support to people in crisis. Helping people experiencing destitution Last year, we helped more than 350 people who were experiencing destitution, homelessness and extreme poverty. We are there to listen, help people access medical and mental health services, get legal advice and find food, clothing and homelessness support. Bernard’s story Bernard (not his real name) has been in the UK asylum system for over 16 years. He is 64 years old. In 2018 the Home Office reje ..read more

Every year, we help hundreds of people who have been granted refugee status rebuild their lives in Scotland. The transition from asylum seeker, with very few choices about how and where you live, to refugee, with a raft of new rights and responsibilities, is not an easy one. We support people with everything from finding somewhere to live and a school for their children, to accessing social support, applying for travel documents and securing a place at college. Last year, we helped 639 households from 45 nationalities to find their feet after being granted refugee status in Scotland. And we wo ..read more