City of Sanctuary bid is gathering pace

Apr 24th, 2010 | By admin | Category: Community, Swansea

People originally from four continents gathered at the Guildhall to meet Swansea Lord Mayor Cllr Alan Lloyd and other city leaders and share their experiences.

City of Sanctuary is a national movement of local people and community groups working to make their cities a place of welcome and safety for those seeking sanctuary from war and persecution.

A working group consisting of refugees, asylum seekers and representatives of local businesses has been set up in Swansea to help the city land the coveted status.

The bid needs pledges of support from 100 organisations in Swansea to be successful and organisers are now close to reaching the target.

Swansea Council unanimously voted to back the City of Sanctuary bid in December.

One Swansea couple who have done much to develop community spirit and integrate refugee families into the city are Shahid and Saima Altaf, of Ravenhill.

They were granted refugee status in 2002. Shahid had fled political persecution in Pakistan, his homeland, and had encountered further troubles in the Middle East.

He is the founder member of the Swansea Bay Asylum Seekers Support Group and helps run drop-in sessions for locals, asylum seekers and refugees.

Shahid said: “Since our first day in Swansea the local people have been welcoming, warm and helpful.

“I’m so thankful that we came to Swansea; having lived in other locations we never realised a city could be so friendly.

“We left so much behind when we came to the UK but we still have family- and that means the world to me.

“Integration is so important to a community and that’s why I’m fully behind the bid for Swansea’s bid to get City of Sanctuary status.”

Local people who want to take part in the City of Sanctuary bid can participate in a variety of ways.

More information is available at www.cityofsanctuary.org/swansea or people can email swansea@cityofsanctuary.org

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blockem April 25th, 2010 6:50 pm
Oh great! Well done Swansea.

Can Glasgow please send you all or even some of our ever burgeoning mob of asylum seekers? No-one knows how many asylum seekers / refugees there are in Glasgow, estimate probably some fifteen thousand. Can you take our 1,000 (sic) FAILED asylum seeking families (4,500 including dependents) who have been legally informed that they have no moral or legal right to be in Glasgow, Scotland and Britain but stick to fingers up at our legal decisions and refuse point blank to GO!!!

Please contact Glasgow City Council and offer “sanctuary” to more asylum seekers and refugees in your wonderful city of Swansea – the government will give you money.