We have a Facebook group (www.facebook.com/groups/hbtsr) and you can see some of the latest posts by following the link . Unfortunately Facebook no longer supports sharing our page.
Details of a community sponsorship scheme working in Pembrokeshire- Llangors County Councillor Sian Cox drew this to our attention in March 2024
https://pembrokeshire-herald.com/89940/welsh-neighbours-band-together-to-rescue-gaza-families/
The process they follow is entirely legal, and uses a coordinator on the ground, who links between officials in Gaza who administer the process and people outside Gaza who provide the money to pay the coordinators to do it.
The coordinator my friends’ group uses is a local travel agency, Hala Travel Company. The process requires an immediate family member to attend the Hala office in Egypt and either pay the fee up front or demonstrate that they have the funds to pay the fee following their family member/s’ arrival in Egypt. The family member is given a ticket number, and contacted when their family member in Gaza’s turn to be removed has come.
My friends’ group focuses on women and children and to date has rescued two mothers, three children and one father. The families, and their family members in Egypt, whom they join following escape, are people my friends have links with through their own networks.
It costs £4,000 per adult. The group is working to find an organisation on the ground in Egypt who would partner with them to develop a more cost-effective long-term solution. In the meantime, they’re doing it this way because it’s the only way available.
My friends conduct meetings by video call with the families following their safe arrival at the homes of their families in Egypt. People who donate are invited to join the calls, to meet the families they’ve helped to rescue. My friends are also happy to facilitate donors staying in touch with families; and are happy to keep in touch with donors themselves.
If you would like to donate, no money is taken from you until the full fee for the next family is pledged. The process is that you contact the group by email to pledge the amount you wish to donate. Once the money is required, the group will contact you to ask you to transfer your donation. (However, should you prefer to, you are welcome simply to donate up front, by transferring your donation into the bank account the group is using. If you do that, please send the group an email letting them know you’ve done this, and the amount you transferred. They would like to keep track of donations and also to thank you and invite you to the video calls.)
The group’s email address is: [email protected]
The bank account details are below: Cilgwyn Community Group – Treasurers’ Account Lloyds Bank
Sort code: 30-71-89 Acc no: 23378268 Use the ‘Friends and Family’ option if prompted.
We propose to use this page to detail some petitions, activism and lobbying
Asylum Matters has a regular newsletter of activism
Freedom from Torture – ‘
A lift the ban on working here
B Detention b End indefinite detention Liberty here c Detention Action here c women for refugee women here d Amnesty International here e Freedom from torture here and here
C destitution Join the campaign to call on the Government to deliver dignity, not destitution, for asylum seekers. Briefing here take action here
D let refugees learn Learning English is so important to help with integration. here
E ask the government for a kinder and fairer immigration system here and here and here. F support a welcoming Europe here
t Refugee council petition to the Home Secretary asking that Families be reunited { basically The UK is one of only two countries in the EU that bans child refugees who arrive in the UK alone from bringing any relatives to join them, even their parents].Also adult refugees are prevented from bringing their children over 18, or their elderly parents. New research here]
And a toolkit for campaigning for family reunification
F Some up-to- date facts here and here
G City of Sanctuary newsletter –