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Thank you to everyone who has responded to our requests for mobile phones and donations: we are very grateful for your support. We have paused our phone collection (due to a generous donation of phones), however we are still in need of cash donations, as we can then allocate these where they’re most needed.
One of our supporters, Rev'd Dr David Munchin, has raised almost £1,000 for our Afghan Appeal cycling a 500 mile loop in Scotland known as the North Coast 500. You can donate to HWR via the link below. Please indicate if you are donating to our Afghan Appeal. https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/charity-web/charity/finalCharityHomepage.action?charityId=1016803 If you prefer, you can donate via bank transfer: Herts Welcomes Refugees Sort code 20 05 73 Account number 80585378 Herts County Council has taken the lead in coordinating support for the Afghan families in the county and is working with a range of providers and charities to ensure their needs are met. Herts Welcomes Refugees has offered to contribute to this because of our experience with refugees and asylum seekers. We are not looking for donations of goods at present. If you have goods that you’d like to donate, please email: afghan.support@hertfordshire.gov.uk Please do not be tempted to take goods to any of the hotels. The process needs to be managed carefully for the wellbeing of the families and to allow those who are directly charged with identifying and addressing the needs of the families to focus on what they need to do. We may request donations of specific goods in future, but your money donations help us to quickly purchase items that can’t be sourced otherwise. The hotels are only temporary accommodation, and families and individuals can be moved very quickly to their permanent homes. However, we envisage that some will be there for a few months. We are hoping that some will remain in Hertfordshire. As yet, only one family has been resettled here and local councils have so far only pledged to support 12 families, primarily because of a shortage of appropriate housing. There are three separate resettlement schemes that the government has currently committed to:
At the moment the ARAP scheme is only funded for a year, which is of grave concern as these families are likely to need support for more than a year. The other resettlement schemes give a longer period, although we are still waiting for further details about the newest scheme. There are also Afghans in the asylum system and immigration detention who must not be forgotten. You might like to write to your MP asking that asylum seekers who fled from the Taliban before the current crisis be welcomed. Nor should we forget all the other asylum seekers who are already here and those who may arrive in future. Current proposals seek to criminalise those who exercise their right under international law to claim asylum in the UK, when they've arrived without a valid entry clearance. Please consider including opposition to that change too. If Hertfordshire is to resettle families, we need landlords to come forward and offer affordable housing. So far we have not had any offers of accommodation, so please ask your networks and faith groups. Thank you for your kind support. Best wishes from all of us at Herts Welcomes Refugees Comments are closed.
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