Friends Without Borders

General information

Friends Without Borders (FWB) is a charity that provides support and befriending services for asylum seekers, refugees and immigration detainees. Our work centres around befriending detainees within the Haslar Immigration Removal Centre (Haslar IRC in Gosprt), a drop-in advice service for refugees and asylum seekers in Portsmouth in the All Saints Church Hall on Monday and Thursday mornings, and a legal advice service called Access to Justice.

Befriending: Many immigration detainees are from impoverished or dangerous countries and are simply looking for a safety in the UK. They are innocent of any wrong-doing but their detention can last for months or sometimes even years. This can often be a lonely time, with many of the men unable to see their families and often the thought of going back to a country they previously left, for whatever reason, can be daunting. Friends Without Borders befriends these men.

Haslar Immigration Removal Centre is unusual in being in prison buildings, operated by the Prison Service, wholly occupied by immigration detainees. Despite its name, many of the men in Haslar are still fighting in the courts for permission to stay in this country and some will NOT be removed.

All Saints Drop In: Since 2007 Friends Without Borders also provides a welcoming community space for asylum seekers and refugees in the local area of Portsmouth. The All Saints drop-in provides support, problem solving and socialising opportunities for those who attend. This service aims to reduce isolation and social exclusion by enabling clients to negotiate bureaucratic systems which they may not understand and to build networks, both professional and personal.

Access to Justice: Getting good legal advice has always been important to asylum seekers and immigrants but recently it has become much more difficult because of cut backs in the legal aid system. There is now only one solicitor in Portsmouth taking such cases, there is one in Southampton and one in Brighton. Meanwhile the Haslar Immigration Removal Centre is expanding from holding 160 to holding 200. Sixty per cent of our clients are represented by - sometimes not very good - solicitors from out of our region. With the recent closure of BID South the situation has become much more acute and Anne, our Coordinator, has to spend a lot of time on this.

In response to this Friends Without Borders has started a new project – Access to Justice - and opened a new office at All Saints. Since we opened the project (very quietly) in March 2014 it has had 21 cases, 14 of which are still active. All the personnel are currently volunteers who previously worked for BID South. The field of work though is much wider than that of BID, the Friends Without Borders can take on, and give advice about, a range of immigration cases, not just bail. It is our ambition to employ a paid part time programme manager to assist with this side of our work.