On 14th October a panel was convened by the Derby War and Refugees Forum comprising: the Rt Hon Pauline Latham, MP for mid-Derbyshire; Imti Choonara, Emeritus Professor of Child Health University of Nottingham and representative of Amnesty International; Colleen Molloy for City of Sanctuary; Cllr Asaf Afzal, DCC Cabinet member for Cohesion and Integration; and Janet Fuller of Derby Refugee Advice Centre  in Derby Council House, to answer questions submitted by interested parties.

Each panel member set the scene on the topic from their own perspective. Professor Choonara explained that the root cause for most refugees to flee is war and conflict in their home country. He said that over half of refugees are children (which is why his specialism was relevant) and that  the UK had been involved in 28 wars since World War Two, so we do have a responsibility to help those affected most.

Rt Hon Pauline Latham responded, saying that each bomb which is dropped by the UK anywhere is authorised and targeted on something so civilians don’t get killed. She supports the Vulnerable Person Resettlement Scheme for Syrian refugees but argued that it was better to fund refugee support in the regions from which they came.

Janet Fuller described the problems faced by refugees and how the Derby Refugee Advice Centre seeks to help them overcome the confusion and difficulties facing an unknown system with little or no English, with advice sessions, free courses on English, Maths and a wide range of topics with local experts.

Cllr Afzal covered the history of Derby in welcoming asylum seekers over many years and that the Council has supported voluntary groups in the recent past, but is currently hampered by the cuts imposed by central government. He is keen to work with groups working in this area and we will follow this up with a working group to facilitate further action together.

Colleen Molloy from the national City of Sanctuary organisation, spoke of how her knowledge of asylum seekers had been gained from supporting them in her own home; she told of a refugee in the UK who said, “Our bodies are here but our souls are over there”. She supported the Syrian Resettlement programme but was worried that people were being divided in our minds into “good Syrians and bad asylum seekers.”

For the remainder of the time the submitted questions were answered and discussed. Overall the feeling of the meeting was that it had been worthwhile as a start but we must follow up on some of the offers made to make progress in working better together with politicians so that they have a clearer picture of what the issues are for asylum seekers and we have a better understanding of what local and national politicians may be able to do to support our work.