Useful links
Useful links
UNHCR is not responsible for the content of external internet sites listed here or cited elsewhere within this site.
Below are a number of organisation types, please scroll down for more information about specific organisations.
Organisations providing legal support and advice
The Aire Centre
Provides information and advice throughout Europe on international human rights law, including the rights of individuals under the provisions of European Community Law.
Asylum Aid
Asylum Aid is a charity which provides free legal advice and representation to refugees and asylum-seekers seeking safety in the UK from persecution. They also campaign for the fair treatment of refugees in the UK.
Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID)
BID provides a free dedicated bail service for those detained under immigration legislation.
Citizens Advice
The Citizens Advice service helps people resolve their money, legal and other problems by providing information and advice, and by influencing policymakers.
Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI)
JCWI is an independent national voluntary organisation, campaigning for justice and combating racism in immigration and asylum law and policy. JCWI offers free legal advice on immigration, nationality and asylum matters from an advice telephone line.
Refugee and Migrant Justice
Provides legal advice and representation for those seeking protection under international and national Human Rights Asylum law. They also deliver training and other support to those giving advice and representation in such cases and seek to promote the interests of their clients individually and collectively through law and public policy.
Other legal organisations campaigning on asylum
European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE)
ECRE is an umbrella organisation of 73 refugee-assisting agencies in 30 countries working towards fair and humane policies for the treatment of asylum seekers and refugees.
Immigration Law Practitioners Association (ILPA)
The Immigration Law Practitioners' Association was established in 1984 by a group of leading UK immigration practitioners to: promote and improve the advising and representation of immigrants; provide information to members on domestic and European immigration, refugee and nationality law; secure a non-racist, non-sexist, just and equitable system of immigration, refugee and nationality law.
Support for asylum seekers and refugees
Asylum Welcome supports asylum seekers, refugees and immigration detainees in Oxford and Oxfordshire. They offer a range of practical services, including providing advice, visiting detainees, promoting rights and running events.
Citizens Advice
The Citizens Advice service helps people resolve their money, legal and other problems by providing information and advice, and by influencing policymakers.
Refugee Action
Refugee Action is an independent charity that supports refugees and asylum seekers to build new lives in the UK. They campaign to ensure that refugees' voices are heard in matters that affect them, and that people's needs are met.
Refugee Council
The Refugee Council is the largest organisation in the UK working with asylum seekers and refugees. They not only give help and support, but also work with asylum seekers and refugees to ensure their needs and concerns are addressed.
Refugee Education Training and Advisory Service (RETAS)
RETAS is a registered charitable organisation offering information, advice and guidance on education, training and employment for refugees.
Has been operating since 1991 and was the first organisation in South East London to support the integration of refugees in Lewisham and surrounding boroughs into mainstream society using a holistic approach to service delivery.
Other Agencies helping refugees in the UK
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is a worldwide voluntary movement of people who campaign for human rights.
British Red Cross
The British Red Cross is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the world's largest independent humanitarian organisation. The British Red Cross provides practical and emotional assistance to vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers arriving in the UK. They also restore family links of those separated by war or disaster. On average, the British Red Cross reunites one family per day.
Freedom from Torture
Founded in 1985, the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture (now Freedom from Torture) is an independent charity that provides care and rehabilitation to survivors of torture and other forms of organised violence. The Medical Foundation is the UK's only treatment centre dedicated to helping the survivors of torture and organised violence.
Oxfam
Oxfam GB is a development, relief, and campaigning organisation dedicated to finding lasting solutions to poverty and suffering around the world. Oxfam supported the Refugee Council by opening a night shelter and day centre for asylum-seekers in London, now called the One Stop Service. They offer emergency food and shelter as well as help with language classes and legal and health advice. They have also worked with other agencies to help provide clothing to many individuals and families left destitute in Great Britain, and often ill prepared for the harsher British winters.
PRAXIS
Praxis is a membership organisation advancing the human rights and social justice of people displaced by war, conflict, impoverishment and environmental degradation.
Refugee Action
Refugee Action is an independent charity that supports refugees and asylum seekers to build new lives in the UK. They campaign to ensure that refugees' voices are heard in matters that affect them, and that people's needs are met.
Refugee Council
The Refugee Council is the largest organisation in the UK working with asylum seekers and refugees. They not only give help and support, but also work with asylum seekers and refugees to ensure their needs and concerns are addressed.
Save the Children
They are the UK's leading international children's charity, working to create a better future for children. They are active in the UK, as well as around 70 countries worldwide. They involve children in what they do - they believe in listening and learning from them. Save the Children is currently campaigning for refugee and asylum seeker children's rights.
Scottish Refugee Council
They are the Scottish Charity that provide advice, information and assistance to asylum seekers and refugees in Scotland. They promote a strategic response to refugee needs and campaign to ensure Scotland plays its role meeting the UK's legal and humanitarian obligations under the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees.
Student Action for Refugees (STAR)
STAR is an organisation that gives university students and young people (16-18 years) the opportunity to learn about and raise awareness of refugee issues in innovative ways, support refugees in a practical way in their local communities through volunteering and campaign with and for the rights of refugees everywhere
Other Agencies helping refugees Worldwide
The AMAR International Charitable Foundation (AMAR)
AMAR's aim is to recover and to sustain professional services in medicine, public health, education and basic need provision within refugee and other communities living under stress in war zones or in areas of civil disorder and disruption.
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is a worldwide voluntary movement of people who campaign for human rights.
Care International UK
CARE provides emergency food and shelter to survivors of natural disasters, wars and conflicts. They remain with communities long after initial relief efforts are completed and support initiatives to enable people to rebuild their lives and to face the future with renewed confidence.
CAFOD
CAFOD is a major British charity that has been fighting world poverty since 1962. CAFOD funds partner organisations working in over 70 countries. Projects range from working with child soldiers in Sierra Leone to building homes for Afghan refugees in Shamshatoo.
Concern
Concern's mission is to enable absolutely poor people to achieve major improvements in their lifestyles which are sustainable without ongoing support from Concern. They work with the poor themselves and with local and international partners who share our vision to create just and peaceful societies where the poor can exercise their fundamental rights. Projects include working in the north of Afghanistan providing emergency relief to internally displaced people.
Christian Aid
An agency of the churches in the UK and Ireland, Christian Aid works wherever the need is greatest, irrespective of religion. It supports local organisations, which are best placed to understand local needs, as well as giving help on the ground through 16 overseas offices. Christian Aid launched emergency programmes which have helped more than 500,000 people in Afghanistan. The assistance has ranged from the provision of emergency food relief, clothing, tents and clean drinking water, through to distributing seeds and fertilisers for the spring planting, and the replenishment of livestock. Longer-term development work has continued enabling communities to strengthen their local structures through vocational training, health worker training, construction of clinics, micro credit, seed banks, fruit tree planting, irrigation works and vegetable plots.
International Red Cross
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is the world's largest independent humanitarian organisation. The International Federation - through its network of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies - is well placed to assist refugees and displaced people.
Medical Emergency Relief International (MERLIN)
Merlin exists to respond to medical emergencies in the most vulnerable parts of the world. For example, Merlin has provided healthcare to locals, returnees and displaced people in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)
MSF is an independent humanitarian medical aid agency committed to two objectives: providing medical aid wherever needed, regardless of race, religion, politics or sex and raising awareness of the plight of the people they help. For example, MSF provides health care for 30,000 Liberian refugees in Sierra Leone.
Ockenden International (OI)
Ockenden International is an award-winning charity whose aim is to ease the suffering of refugees in today's world and give them a chance of a more stable future. OI is a non-governmental, politically neutral organisation working directly with refugee communities in some of the poorest and most war-torn countries including Afghanistan, Cambodia and Sudan. Bridging the gap between aid and development, OI helps to give refugees the education, skills and confidence they need to re-build their lives.
Oxfam
Oxfam GB is a development, relief, and campaigning organisation dedicated to finding lasting solutions to poverty and suffering around the world. For example, Oxfam has been working in Somaliland since 1991, initially addressing the immediate emergency needs of refugees returning from Ethiopia.
They are the UK's leading international children's charity, working to create a better future for children. They work in around 70 countries worldwide. They involve children in what they do - they believe in listening and learning from them. An example of their work is the reunification of thousands of families torn apart by war in Africa and Bosnia.
World University Service
The World University Service works with refugees in development education in parts of Africa, Peru and the Middle East.
Inter Govermental Organisations in the UK
International Labour Organisation - (ILO)
The International Labour Organization is the UN specialised agency which seeks the promotion of social justice and internationally recognized human and labour rights. It was founded in 1919 and is the only surviving major creation of the Treaty of Versailles which brought the League of Nations into being and it became the first specialized agency of the UN in 1946.
International Maritime Organisation (IMO)
The International Maritime Organisation is the United Nations specialised agency responsible for improving maritime safety and preventing pollution from ships. They are also commited to technical co-operation.
International Organisation for Migration (IOM)
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is committed to the principle that humane and orderly migration benefits migrants and society. As an intergovernmental body, IOM acts with its partners in the international community to assist in meeting the operational challenges of migration, advance understanding of migration issues, encourage social and economic development through migration and uphold the human dignity and well-being of migrants.
United Nations Association (UNA)
The United Nations Association of the UK is a voluntary, membership-based non-governmental organisation. They campaign, educate and fundraise to help turn the ideals of the United Nations into reality.
UNICEF
UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, is a global champion for children's rights which makes a lasting difference by working with communities and influencing governments.
Educational/Research
Africa Educational Trust
The Trust supports education in Africa, African students studying outside of Africa and research and dissemination of information about Africa.
The Centre for Trauma, Asylum and Refugees
The Centre for Trauma,asylum and Refugees (CTAR) aims to provide a framework and a focus for examining, from a variety of perspectives, the main issues associated with the reality and experience of being an asylum seeker or refugee; the main emphasis is on the psychological dimensions of these experiences. the Centre is also intended to provide a forum for individuals and organisations in this country and abroad to exchange knowledge and experiences and to further develop their ideas and work in this field.
Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees (ICAR)
ICAR is an independent centre set up to collect, compile and disseminate up to date, comprehensive and academically credible information about refugees and asylum seekers in the UK, in order to promote better understanding of the issues. It responds to the need for authoritative, independently generated information for democratic debate, and for a counterweight to misinformation and stereotyping in press coverage and political discussion.
Overseas Development Institute
ODI is Britain's leading independent think-tank on international development and humanitarian issues. Their mission is to inspire and inform policy and practice which lead to the reduction of poverty, the alleviation of suffering and the achievement of sustainable livelihoods in developing countries. They do this by locking together high-quality applied research, practical policy advice, and policy-focused dissemination and debate. They work with partners in the public and private sectors, in both developing and developed countries.
Refugee Studies Centre (RSC)
The RSC has conducted research into the theory and practice of humanitarian assistance, the legal status and dynamics of displacement, human rights and citizenship, and the psychological effects of forced migration. Over the next few years it will focus these concerns around four interrelated research themes:
- Asylum from an international legal and political perspective
- Conflict and post-conflict reintegration
- Diasporas and transnational communities
- Development-induced displacement and resettlement
Refugee Women's Groups
Refugee Women's Association
Provides a range of services to help refugee women settle down successfully in Britain. These include confidential advice and counselling, ESOL courses, Jobsearch course, customised training courses in specific skills.
Women for Refugee Women
Their women's work informs and supports all that they do to meet the particular needs of women.
Refugee Women's Resource Project
The Refugee Women's Resource Project was set up in April 2000 by Asylum Aid, a registered charity which provides free legal representation and advice to asylum seekers and refugees. It aims to enable women fleeing serious human rights violations to gain protection in the UK.
UK youth organisations and projects
British Youth Council (BYC)
The BYC is an independent charity, which functions as a representative body for young people in the UK. It forwards their views to government, political parties, and the media. Campaigns of the BYC, such as 'End Child Poverty', 'Beat Poverty' or 'Sport Relief' address a wide range of social and political issues.
The Children's Society
The Children's Society is a national charity, which runs projects all over the UK, aimed at driving public debate on issues concerning children. Their Social Policy Unit seeks to influence legislation and government policy, and currently tackles issues such as human rights submission, child poverty, health, youth justice, and refugees. The Children's Society is a member of the Refugee Children's Consortium.
Global Youth Work
Development education aims to raise awareness and understanding of how global issues affect the everyday lives of individuals, communities and societies and how all of us can and do influence the global. Global Youth Work is informal education which starts from young people's everyday experiences, seeks to develop their understanding of the local and the global influences on their lives, and encourages positive action for change.
National Council for Voluntary Youth Services (NCVYS)
NCVYS is the independent voice of the voluntary youth sector in England. A diverse network of over 150 national voluntary youth organisations and regional and local youth networks, NCVYS has been working since 1936 to support voluntary and community organisations that work with young people.
National Youth Agency (NYA)
The NYA is a government-funded organisation, which aims to advance youth work in order to support young people's personal and social development. It works on a local and national level, supporting local youth projects, and launching the Youth Work Week. In 2003 Youth Work Week will be 1st - 7th November, with the theme 'Your Roots, Your Community'. Its information centre provides a comprehensive collection of resources on work with young people.
Prince's Trust
The Prince's Trust exists to help young people, aged 14-30 overcome the barriers in their lives that prevent them from fulfilling their potential. For most young refugees, life can be a continuous series of difficulties that have to be endured. The Trust is committed to assisting them, along with all young people in the UK, to enrich their skills and to become welcome and valued members of our society.
Student Action for Refugees (STAR)
STAR is a unique organisation giving university students and young people the opportunity to: learn about and raise awareness of refugee issues in innovative ways; support refugees in a practical way in their local communities through volunteering and campaign with and for the rights of refugees everywhere. The STAR network is made up of university based student groups, young people (16-18 year olds) involved in the STAR Youth Programme and Friends of STAR (individuals and organisations who support the work of STAR).
UK Youth Parliament (UKYP)
The UKYP aims to promote political awareness amongst British teenagers by giving them a representative voice, which will be listened to by government, political parties and service providers.
Woodcraft Folk
The Woodcraft Folk is an educational movement for children and young people, designed to develop self confidence and activity in society, with the aim of building a world based on equality, friendship, peace and co-operation. They provide games and activities which raise awareness of refugee issues.
International youth organisations and projects
Action Aid
One of UK's largest development agencies, Action Aid provides overseas aid to third world countries. The School and Youth Programme supplies education packs, youth and teaching materials, and launches education campaigns on issues such as HIV/Aids, international aid, and food rights.
Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD)
CAFOD is a major British charity that has been fighting world poverty since 962. CAFOD funds partner organisations working in over 70 countries. Projects range from working with child soldiers in Sierra Leone to building homes for Afghan refugees in Shamshatoo.
Christian Aid
An agency of the churches in the UK and Ireland, Christian Aid works wherever the need is greatest, irrespective of religion. Global Gang is the Christian Aid website for children and young people, aimed at raising awareness about the developing world, and encouraging action.
Connect Youth International
Formerly known as the Youth Exchange Centre, Connect Youth International is a department of the British Council, which promotes non-formal exchanges of young people between the UK and other countries. Connect offers exchange programmes, individual voluntary service, and provides funding for people working in the youth field - giving young people international experiences. It is funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the DfEs, and the Education and Culture department of the European Commission.
European Youth Forum
The European Youth Forum is an international organisation established by national youth councils and international non-governmental youth organisations in order to represent the interests of young people all over Europe. It aims to promote equal right and opportunities. The central focus lies on youth policy, as a consultative body for international organisations such as the European Union.
Oxfam - Coolplanet
Oxfam is a development, relief, and campaigning organisation dedicated to finding lasting solutions to poverty and suffering around the world. Its development education programme attempts to forward the skills, values and attitudes necessary for young people to become global citizens.
Save the Children
They are the UK's leading international children's charity, working to create a better future for children. They are active in the UK, as well as around 70 countries worldwide. They involve children in what they do - they believe in listening and learning from them. Save the Children is currently campaigning for refugee and asylum seeker children's rights.
UNICEF promotes children's and young people's rights across the globe. They encourage young people to become active citizens taking on their rights and responsibilities and show how young people can get involved. This site looks at children's rights and issues affecting children world-wide.