Refugees’ Voices - Priority Campaigns
REAP Position statements and policy recommendations
Approved at REAP Bd of Directors/Trustees 16th July 2008
In the context of REAP’s mission:
Refugees in Effective and Active Partnership (REAP) is an independent organisation with the main aim of empowering refugees and asylum seekers to reach their full potential and to enable them to rebuild their lives within the UK. We achieve this aim by working strategically in partnership with others to provide a range of practical advice and support services for individual refugees, asylum seekers, their communities and the organisations that support them within West London and in other areas where we can address unmet needs. We also respond proactively to policy developments to ensure that the needs of refugees and asylum seekers are considered up to the highest level.
On 13th June 2007, REAP MC agreed three priority areas for REAP’s campaigning activities in 2007/08:
The need to monitor the impact and process of NAM
Community interpreters – Terms and Conditions
Funders’ dependence on written English as disadvantaging non-native speakers.
Process: The campaign work started with a period of research, briefing, discussion and debate, followed by agreeing a REAP position at MC level, then by active campaigning to raise awareness of these concerns, exploring possible solutions and lobby for constructive attention at policy-level from Borough, sub-regional, pan-London and higher levels.
For all issues
Research/gather personal experiences
Train and brief REAP staff
Feed into existing campaigns;
Raise the issue at all appropriate forums, networks, opportunities eg. using monthly e-listing;
Encourage members and RCOs to take up campaigns.
On 16th July 2008, the Board of Directors/Trustee approved the following statements.
REAP believes that people’s experiences of the UKs asylum processes affect their future lives in the UK, and their ability to settle, rebuild and become a valuable part of British society.
Therefore it is important that the Home Office and other agencies involved look carefully at people’s experiences of the New Asylum Model, and do not only monitor facts and statistics relating to Government targets.
REAP believes
UK Borders Agency should commission an impact assessment of the NAM process on people’s wellbeing and mental health, especially relating to their future lives in the UK;
the report should be available to the voluntary sector and the public;
there should be independent scrutiny of monitoring data and systems;
there should be a quick response by the Government to any recommendations and findings.
Community Interpreters provide crucial services for many asylum-seekers and refugees as they start to rebuild their lives in the UK. Community Interpreters assist people in accessing the services they need and play a valuable communication and cultural role beyond simply translating languages.
REAP believes that the terms and conditions community interpreters are required to accept are exploitative if compared to comparable professions and that exploitative structures are created and reinforced by statutory bodies which almost all manage their interpreting needs via commercial agencies. This exploitation in turn undermines good quality community interpreting, which hurts the refugees that need it. As community interpreters are almost always from ethnic minorities, this is institutionally discriminatory against ethnic minorities and new migrants which includes a high proportion of refugees.
REAP believes:
statutory bodies should employ interpreters on their payroll, to ensure they have fair terms and conditions, opportunities for career development and advancement, and effective quality control;
statutory bodies that continue to use agencies for languages in less demand or for emergency cover should ensure the agencies they use provide:
adequate terms and conditions,
welfare support,
training and development opportunities,
effective support that ensures interpreters understand and cope with the complications of being self-employed eg. book-keeping, tax returns.
there should be support for community interpreters to create structures that will protect themselves and their professional peers.
Funders’ over-dependence on written English
REAP believes that:
Funders and commissioning bodies’ dependence on written applications discriminates institutionally against AS&R as well as other ethnic minorities where English is the not the first language and for whom education and work experience has not been British.
Funders/ commissioners should start a process of close self-scrutiny and re-examine their assumptions and processes, particularly where assessment depends primarily on the written word.
Funders/commissioners should have direct contact over time with small groups, if they are to understand and assess groups’ value fairly and effectively.