On Wednesday 8 May, Leeds City Council heard a deputation regarding destitution, asking the City Council Executive Board to look into the issue of asylum seekers and destitution in Leeds. The Council chamber voted unanimously in favour of the Executive Board investigating the requests made!
On Wednesday 8 May, Leeds City Council heard a deputation regarding destitution, asking the City Council Executive Board to look into the issue of asylum seekers in Leeds.
Below are some pictures from the team who led the deputation on destitution in Leeds today. Grace bravely read out the deputation to the whole Council chamber, who voted unanimously in favour of the Executive Board investigating the requests made. Well done to everyone involved!
More photos can be found on our flickr account
Read more about the deputation and how you can support it.
Only a few years ago, Leeds council voted in favour of becoming a city of sanctuary and a place of welcome to those fleeing persecution and injustice. On Wednesday 8 May, Leeds City Council will hear a deputation regarding destitution, asking the City Council executive to look into the issue of asylum seekers in Leeds. Today, hundreds of people who seek sanctuary in our city are destitute. Asylum seekers are not allowed to work and must live on just over £5 per day, and people who have had their claims refused and are left completely destitute.
On 8 May, a group of local charities and organisations will ask the council to:
- Write to Home Secretary to outline its concerns
- Support the recommendations from the recent cross-party parliamentary report on asylum support for children, of which the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds was member
- To endorse the aims of Still Human Still Here campaign, and to make this clear in the letter to the Home Secretary
- Leeds has citizens from every postcode signed up to the city of sanctuary pledge, and many are doing a lot to create a welcoming and just Leeds, free of poverty and homelessness. We hope Leeds City Council will continue in its commitment to be a City of Sanctuary.
What can you do to support?
- Talk about it (with friends, at work, with your family, on your facebook page)
- Donate to destitute asylum seekers through PAFRAS
- Spread the message – forward it, share it, tweet it, like it on our facebook page
- Write to the Home Secretary – The Rt Hon Theresa May MP, House of Commons, London SW1A OAA