Our Partners and Allies

Asylum Matters works in partnership with a broad range of organisations and groups locally and nationally. We mobilise and provide platforms for the voices of direct experience to be heard; refugees, people seeking asylum and the people who work with them in communities up and down the country. We engage with key decision makers at a local and national level as well as seeking to influence opinion formers via our campaigns for change.

"The core value of the project is embodied in offering a platform where refugees and asylum-seekers can communicate unfiltered messages directly to the law and decision-makers. I worked with them in delivering a statement at parliament for the APPG's "Refugee Welcome?" report... Seeing others get what you were deprived of and what you fought for brings a very rewarding feeling and urges you to put more faith and energy in the causes Asylum Matters advocates."
Ayad
AyadExpert by Experience and Advisory Group Member
"Asylum Matters have played a pivotal role in ensuring that local and regional advocacy work has been rooted in lived experience and is deployed as effectively as possible. Asylum Matters and the Leeds Migration Partnership have collaborated in a variety of ways - from orchestrating cross sector consultations to developing local strategies to address destitution and access to NHS healthcare."
Jon Beech
Jon BeechChair of Leeds Migration Partnership and Director of Leeds Asylum Seekers Support Network (LASSN)
"With Asylum Matters I was able to meet with my local MP and talk about problems that are important to me. We talked about my case, my house and permission to work for asylum seekers. Since then I have been granted permission to work and my case has been moved forward. I now have met my MP a number of times and feel happy and confident engaging with him. It was good to see that change can be possible."
Ali
Ali Kurdish Iranian Refugee
"Asylum Matters do fantastic work in advocating for improvements for asylum seekers. This is an absolutely vital role as most front line agencies lack the resources or the high level contacts to be able to do this work themselves. Asylum Matters empower us and our clients, ensuring that our voices are heard. "
Jude Hawes
Jude HawesSpecialist Services and Equalities Teams Manager, Staffordshire North and Stoke-on-Trent Citizens Advice Bureau
"The principal value of the project is that it collates information from local groups, so proving a valuable channel by which assessment can be made of whether such a concern is replicated elsewhere and, if that is the case, raised at an appropriate level. Asylum Matters has supported DASH by providing a sounding board to explore ideas and also by promoting us to relevant audiences. "
Mike Shaw
Mike ShawDASH Huddersfield
"Asylum Matters have provided training to help our volunteers and partners better understand why people flee their country and claim asylum in the UK, putting the global issues facing refugees into context...They have been valuable as a supportive and dedicated project who are monitoring current political activity and able to offer up to date and factually correct information that makes people reconsider what they have heard through the media and national press. This work has helped hundreds of people we work with better understand the issues people seeking asylum face in the UK today and provided them with the factual information and simple actions they can take to help make changes locally and nationally."
Dan Williams
Dan WilliamsProducer, ArtReach, Journey's Festival, Manchester
"Asylum Matters is absolutely invaluable. It is vital that workers on the ground have access to accurate and timely information and advice on current, forthcoming and potential government policy, and the opportunity to feed into that via a trusted and reliable mediator."
Will Sutcliffe
Will SutcliffeChair of Bradford City of Sanctuary

Experts by Experience

Our campaigning work is shaped and driven by the experiences and concerns of people going through the UK asylum system. We provide platforms for Experts by Experience to speak out about their experiences and share testimonies and evidence directly with decision makers. We meet with asylum seeker-led groups and people who are working alongside asylum seekers and refugees as advice workers, volunteers and friends  in order to understand how asylum policy is affecting their lives and strengthen their capacity to campaign for change. 

Partners and Allies

We work with a broad range of local and national organisations including refugee support projects and organisations with over-lapping interests such as homelessness charities, health advocacy groups and faith groups. We also work in partnership with Local Authorities, Strategic Migration Partnerships and statutory services to improve the lives of refugees and people seeking asylum. 

Decision Makers and Opinion Formers

Asylum Matters engages with key decision makers in local and national government in order to push for positive policy change, including MPs, Peers, Councillors and Mayors. We also target non-elected decision makers such as commissioners, civil servants and policy-makers, as well as opinion formers within think tanks and the media.  

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