📣 The Government has announced cruel policies that risk eroding refugees' rights. So we – people who believe in compassion and unity – are raising our voices. We’re fighting back with a message of our own. We stand #TogetherWithRefugees ✉️ Write to your MP TODAY! actionnetwork.org/letters/tell...

On a lighter note, we'd briefly like to blow our own trumpet! This year we turned 10. Here's a film we made to celebrate! Big thx to all our friends, partners + neighbrs who recently celebrated with us. We love you! Here's to another 10 yrs of organising welcome! www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4jW...

Our little team is cooking up big ideas🥄 We support and coordinate 100+ local groups whilst working with hundreds of schools, universities, councils and more to ensure theyre places of welcome, understanding and opportunity. Last week we had a rare team day... 🧵

At HMSC, we work tirelessly to provide holistic casework and advocacy to migrants in London, and we campaign alongside our visitors for an end to the hostile environment. We need your help to continue this vital work - support us by donating to our fundraiser! localgiving.org/fundraising/...

We're proud to partner with the wider sector in challenging this madness. Volunteering must remain VOLUNTARY. Read about our open letter to the Home Secretary 👉 www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Mandatory volunteering? This policy is a paradox. Forcing people to volunteer would: ❌ Undermine everything that makes volunteering so valuable ❌ Harm survivors of trafficking & modern slavery ❌ Discriminate against those who can't volunteer

🔔 A reminder.

Today, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood prepares to announce the latest attack on refugee rights in the UK. A host of hostile policy changes have already been announced. We don’t yet have the full details, but we’ll keep you updated as more becomes clear. ⬇️Here’s what we know + think so far:

Refugee status isn’t a ‘golden ticket’, nor is it time sensitive. It is a human right. Today, the Home Secretary will roll out drastic changes to refugee protections. Here is our reaction.

🚨🚨🚨 Our new report on hotel accommodation drops today. These hotels are not 5*. Here's the proof. Relying on testimony from clients, photos & medical evidence, you can now see the awful reality of hotel life. More updates throughout the day so watch this space. www.ramfel.org.uk/asylum-hotel...

🙌🙌 "The answers are obvious. End the long-term use of hotels. Fund councils to provide proper housing. Let people seeking asylum work & support themselves. Bring asylum housing back into public hands." RAMFEL's Layla Hussain on our hotels report in @bigissue.com www.bigissue.com/opinion/asyl...

Honoured to play a role in ensuring Manchester and Sanctuary are forever interlinked. A history that goes right back to Viraj Mendis at @hulmeascension.bsky.social. (Would recommend reading up on this chapter of Manchester’s history if you’re unfamiliar! ✊)

Tomorrow @houseoflords.parliament.uk will have the chance to vote on amendment 76 tabled by @greenjennyjones.bsky.social that would require Government to record and report on fatalities in the asylum system so no death is ignored. #KnowTheirNames bills.parliament.uk/bills/3929/s...

An appreciation post on #TrusteesWeek! 🧡 We're super grateful for the work our trustees do to guide MCoS' strategic vision; ensuring we embed sanctuary in every last corner of the city. Futureproofing our movement of welcome, one meeting at a time. 📈

Join us 🏛️Manchester Central Library M2 5PD 📅Friday 7 November 🕛12-3pm to discuss what sanctuary looks like for people fleeing persecution. How can today's UK Cities of Sanctuary resist this growing hostile environment? racearchive.org.uk/sanctuary-no...

What better way to mark the end of #BlackHistoryMonth than to commemorate one of the finest chapters in our city's history - #PanAfricanCongress. We honour not only the delegates' decolonial, anti-racist vision, but also the role of Mancunians in making the Congress happen.

What would you do to keep your family safe? You'd do anything, right? Thats why more men cross the Channel. They don't want to put their wives or children in danger. They come first to find safety & to try to bring their families the right way. No one risks it all unless they have no other choice🧵

Asylum seekers, housed in hotels in Manchester, are reaching out in their own words to address the concerns of the local community. Please take a minute to read their letter, & share it with the people in your life who need to hear the truth about the people they are protesting.

You’ve got £9.95 to last you the whole week… what’s your plan? This impossible choice is played out in asylum hotels. Whilst people await a decision on their claim, they are banned from working & receive just £9.95 for clothes, travel, data & more. This is not luxury. This is a hellish limbo. 🧵

From our family to yours, may the festival of lights bring you peace, prosperity and happiness. 🪔 #HappyDiwali ✨

Fifth Pan-African Congress ended on this day 1945 at former Chorlton-on-Medlock Town Hall, Manchester. Sought independence for African countries, including future leaders such as Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah and Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta. Kenyatta lived in Manchester.

As part of #BlackHistoryMonth, Loraine shares her poem, I Raise My Fist, reflecting on courage, identity, and strength. Loraine is a Sanctuary Ambassador - she uses her own experiences of seeking sanctuary to campaign for a fairer and more compassionate asylum system.

Neglect. Self-harm. Prison-like conditions. Detention is an affront to human dignity. On the National Day of Solidarity and every day, we stand with all those subjected to this abuse, and call for a new approach - one rooted in justice, care and humanity. #TheseWallsMustFall

After another turbulent summer, this number is now likely higher. On #WorldMentalHealthDay and every day, we stand against hostility, against scapegoating, against scaremongering. Join us in standing FOR welcome and compassion. 🧡

On Friday 7th Nov, there will be an event on at The Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre on the history of Sanctuary and anti-deportation campaigns. 🎫Free tickets and more information available here: www.racearchive.org.uk/sanctuary-no...

Too early for Christmas jumpers? Never 👀 Meet our two limited-edition designs — SOLIDARITY HAS SNOW BORDERS and HO HO HOpe — available on jumpers, hoodies and tote bags. 🎁https://everpress.com/solidarity-has-snow-borders 🎁https://everpress.com/hohohope

A message from MCoS in the wake of yesterday’s attack.

In reality? We got a barrage of harmful rhetoric about people seeking safety, cruel policies about tearing families apart and discriminatory plans to make people "earn" safety. #ConferenceSeason2025

We've joined over 100 organisations calling on the new Home Secretary to unite communities. Scapegoating refugees won’t fix inequality, housing shortages, or a crumbling NHS. Real solutions will. Read our open letter here: www.refugee-action.org.uk/OpenLetterHo...

We love this😍 Chemists at @officialuom.bsky.social - a Uni of Sanctuary - have run workshops for refugee children, using science to spark curiosity & rebuild confidence for those who have missed out on formal schooling due to displacement & conflict. www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/u...

This week, two children died in the Channel. Ten days earlier the ex-Home Secretary suspended refugee family reunions. That means children have no safe way to reach refugee parents. It's hard to see how this will lead to anything other than more children being killed.

Alan Kurdi should be twelve years old. He should have started year nine this week.

📢 Our statement on the Home Secretary's suspension of refugee family reunion applications 👇

The suspension of family reunion applications is the shutting down of one of the only safe routes that exists, forcing more people into making dangerous journeys.

This undoes one of the only positive things this Govt has done for migrants. It will lead to a surge in hardship and homelessness as we move towards winter. This is not a serious plan to end asylum hotels. It is a kneejerk reaction to political pressure. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

At a time of unprecedented hate towards people seeking sanctuary, this stanza rings truer than ever. We can all be refugees. And whoever we are, wherever we come from, we all have the right to feel safe. We won’t stop standing up for compassion. Who’s with us? 🧡

📢 Warning from over 200 organisations that the far-right has hijacked women’s safety for political gain. The Government must take urgent action to prevent misinformation spreading. #NotInOurName www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home... @asylummatters.bsky.social @evawuk.bsky.social

However you arrived, whatever your reason for coming: welcome. Today the Home Office publishes its latest migration stats, which means headline after headline treating people as faceless numbers. We won't forget the people behind the numbers and we won't stop welcoming them.

What today's headlines won't tell you... We are living in a time of unparalleled instability and conflict - there are currently more active conflicts globally than any time since WW2. Small boats are one of the ONLY means to reach the UK for people who are fleeing war and persecution. 1/2

📢 There’s still time to apply to join team Boaz as a Support Worker! This role involves working with women who have been refused asylum who are living in Boaz accommodation. 🧵1/3

🚨 Vital conversations about violence against women and girls are being hijacked by an anti-migrant agenda. We've joined 200 organisations to urge the Government to address this dangerous weaponisation of VAWG. It is #NotInOurName.

Violence against women & girls is a hugely important issue - but it is being hijacked by people seeking to use women's pain for political gain. We've joined 200 orgs urging the Government to reject this dangerous weaponisation & take urgent action. Read more here 👇 www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

We won't stop championing the rights of people seeking sanctuary. Not now. Not ever. And certainly not in the face of abuse or hate. #RefugeesWelcome 🧡

State racism joined with the rise of the far-right, is bearing directly on our people and communities.  Solidarity to all communities targeted with this violence- from people seeking protection to organisations like @cityofsanctuaryuk.bsky.social‬. We won't be silenced ⬇️

Today we join over 200 orgs to call on Party Leaders to end the divisive politics, racist rhetoric and demonising language of the past. Only then will they bring unity instead of division and cohesion rather than hate. #TogetherWithRefugees

This summer, we're showing what welcome looks like. 🧡 We're proud to join the @refugeestogether.bsky.social #WelcomeWeekend (7–10 Aug) – a nationwide show of solidarity with refugees. Together, we’re showing what our communities really stand for.

No one likes aggressive bouncers. Check out our statement on the UK-France 'one-in-one-out' scheme 👇

📢 Our statement on the UK's 'one-in-one-out' deal with France 👇