Beyond Borders Totnes & District is a network that enables local people to lend support to local asylum seekers and refugees at this daunting time. Established in 2015 during the Syrian crisis, most of our volunteers are in Totnes and the surrounding areas. Since that time, the UK has witnessed a number of crises in different countries that have led to people fleeing for their lives – this includes Afghanistan and Ukraine. Initially the majority of the refugees and asylum seekers we served were in Plymouth. Towards the end of 2022, the government began sending asylum seekers to hotels in mostly coastal towns, to wait for their applications for asylum to be received by the Home Office. Asylum seekers housed in hotels in the Torbay area have now become a priority for our volunteering efforts.
Many of the asylum seekers being housed in local hotels have recently arrived in the UK, with few belongings and no support systems. They are provided with meals and accommodation, and £8.24 a week. They are reliant on local charities, churches and voluntary agencies to help them navigate their new surroundings, understand how to deal with the Home Office requirements, and attend to basic needs including health and wellbeing.
Beyond Borders Totnes & District has been liaising with local charities and providing direct support to those staying in the hotels. This has included providing practical items such as shoes and clothing, mobile phones and laptops, sewing machines and bicycles. We offer befriending through social activities such as games nights and musical evenings. We have facilitated residents attending English Language classes. We have arranged a number of outings, including outings to local farms where residents have been able to engage in meaningful activities and get to know the countryside. Those at the hotels are from many different countries, from rural areas and from cities, with different educational and employment backgrounds, different skills and different cultures. Overall we consistently impressed with their dignity and willingness to contribute in whatever way they can.
In response to some of the men from local hotels being sent to live on the Bibby Stockholm barge in Dorset, we have launched a petition to show our objections to this ill-conceived and inhumane move by the Home Office.
Please sign our petition and circulate it to your friends – https://chng.it/2WYHftDftL
Our work continues in Plymouth. Plymouth is our nearest Home Office dispersal city, where asylum seekers and refugees are allocated temporary accommodation while their applications are processed – this can take years. BBT&D have been able to channel a range of local support through official Plymouth refugee and asylum seeker organisations and to some individuals. Through local events and initiatives, we build awareness about the realities asylum seekers and refugees face. Please read carefully our GUIDELINES section to deepen understanding of asylum seekers’ and refugees’ needs.
This website provides a hub of links and information about local refugee support initiatives. You can link in actively by registering here with your contact details – and list particular ways you can and want to offer support. Once on the list, we will send you a regular newsletter about our activities; we will also contact you with specific requests for help, as they arise, to see if you can assist on that occasion.
We collaborate with South Brent and Ashburton Refugee Support initiatives – and others actively engaged with refugees. We stay in contact with the British Red Cross, Devon and Cornwall Refugee Support, Plymouth Hope, Mount Gould Hospital Refugee team in Plymouth, as well as Refugee Support Devon in Exeter. Information about these organisations can be found on the CONTACT page of this website.
Contact: info@beyondborderstotnes.org.uk
Website imagery: Le Grand van Gough, bronze sculpture by Bruno Catalano
Beyond Borders Totnes & District 