Zack Polanski, Deputy Leader of the Green Party England and Wales, met with Brian Darwood and Simon Cottingham of Worcester City Welcomes Refugees (WCWR) to hear about the great work they do supporting refugees and asylum seekers living in Worcester.
WCWR are a network of people, organisations and community groups who have been appalled by the impact on fellow human beings by war, totalitarianism and religious intolerance. Their goal is to support people who have been displaced from their country of origin to be able to live a meaningful and prosperous life in Worcester. There are a small number of families who have settled across the city from Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine as well as over a hundred asylum seekers in a city hotel awaiting their Home Office interviews. Each individual’s situation is different and they all have a story to tell. WCWR helps them by teaching them English, providing clothes, shoes and SIM cards so they can phone their families. The government doesn’t allow them to work until they have been in the UK for 12 months, so we also organise sports and volunteering activities for them.
During the visit Zack Polanski and Clare Wratten, Green Party community campaigner and candidate for Rainbow Hill and Fort Royal division at the county council elections, heard about the problems faced by asylum seekers in the dispersal process getting to Worcester but also being dispersed to other parts of the country when their stay in Worcester has come to an end. Finding them local support groups, helping with CVs and a variety of other aspects, is difficult when you’re a stranger in a new country.
Zack said, “Many of the refugees and asylum seekers coming to Worcester have suffered immensely in their own county and are fleeing literally for their lives. Thank goodness for all the care and compassion that WCWR is able to offer some of the most vulnerable people in our society.”