Sanctuary Information Project

A joint project between City of Sanctuary and the Northern Refugee Centre to help unrepresented asylum seekers

Our aims

The Sanctuary Information Project was set up in 2006 by a group of people in Sheffield working with destitute and unrepresented asylum seekers. The aim was to find ways of providing practical help with limited resources for this client group.

The project is still in the planning stage with training starting alongside the Manuel Bravo Project in Leeds,and the working group examining the ways we can help unrepresented asylum seekers

The Group's conclusions were that, initially, the best way of helping this group was a country information project. This would enable appellants to work with volunteers to provide information supporting their claim of how things have occured.

In addition country information would help those failed asylum seekers who wished to put forward a fresh claim that it was not safe to return whether because of the lack of security if they travelled back to their home or because of new risks to them.

We do not intend to replace solicitors or other representatives and if a client can obtain help in this way by establishing their case or challenging a legal aid decision then this will have been a success.

What is on this site

On this site we will be posting news and details of the project as it is set up.

We will also be posting training materials, manuals of how we work, precedent forms and letters, and links to country information. We do not intend to host country information - there are plenty of sites both free and through subscription, but will link to these. However, where there is material that is not otherwise listed together to support some aspect of the work of the project, we will place it here with supporting letters/howto's etc.