Swansea Bay Asylum Seekers Support Group

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting, Swansea Guildhall, 27 February 2004

The meeting started at 7.30 pm

Present

Nesta Steffens, Jacqui Pany, Tony Young, Cristina Fuentes, Ruth Davies, Shahid Altaf, Saima Altaf, Tom Cheesman, Muhammed Rafiq, John Jenkins, Pam Cram, Jay, Marilyn Thomas, Joey Talbot, Helen Clancy, Ursula Presgrave, Amwar Frances, Bernard Presgrave, Sylvia Hoffman, Shaun Gillespie, Denis Ndomba, Naler Guenatri, Amar Basim Salih, Angela Presgrave, Kheira Saidi, Esyllt Harker

Minutes taken by Marilyn Thomas.

1 To approve the Minutes of the last AGM

The minutes were approved as a correct record of the AGM held in March 2003

2 Matters arising

No matters arising from the previous AGM were raised

3 Annual Report and Financial Reports 2004

Tom Cheesman spoke to the written Annual Report. It had been an interesting and active year with a number of social and cultural events. The drop-in had been maintained every Friday, and had been very successful, moving from the Heyokah Café to the Brunswick Church Hall. The Swansea World Stars Football team continues.

Tom also spoke to the Financial report. Points included:

• An overall balance of £1,588.42
• Cash in hand, Petty cash surplus of £164.81

• The book "Between a Mountain and a Sea", has made a profit of £1100 to date with some sums still owing and a box of books still to sell. In addition some money from sales (£150), has gone straight from Sylvie to destitute asylum seekers.
• The DACE education project over the summer, very successfully managed by Shahid, brought in an administration fee of £500
• The trip to Oakwood received considerable donations and cost SBASSG only £370

Issues arising from the reports.

Should we reprint the book or do another similar project this year? Tom Cheesman favoured doing a new project [possibly a publication on the theme of food and cooking]

4 Update re current situation

There are now c.900 asylum seekers in NASS accommodation in Swansea. Increasing numbers are homeless – either sleeping on the street, telephone kiosks etc or on people’s floors. People who are homeless range from 18 – 50, and they are short of food and the basic necessities, e.g. nappies, feminine hygiene products and tights The Welsh Refugee Council is heavily reliant on donations, and if the public don’t donate there is often nothing to give destitute asylum seekers. [The WRC has now created a Refugee Survival Trust specifically to assist destitute and homeless asylum seekers/refugees. TC]

The situation was discussed:

• It was proposed and agreed that we immediately give £250 from SBASSG funds to the Welsh Refugee Council for destitute asylum seekers.

• Nesta Steffens suggested that all present should also encourage our own contacts to give to the Welsh Refugee Council for this purpose

• Amar Salih raised the issue of legal and other help to help people not lose support in the first place, e.g. help filling out appeals forms.

• Sylvie also raised the issue of people who are denied support because they fail to claim asylum within the very short time allowed by the government (Section 55). She also expressed concern that some people were not getting access to medical services and were afraid to approach the police when harassed for fear of internment.

• Sylvie also reported a case of a doctor who refused to treat a woman, apparently out of fear of touching black skin. It was suggested that she made a complaint against him through the Race Equality Council. Bernard Presgrave confirmed that he would inform the REC who would investigate if possible.

• It was felt by many people in the room that the problem of a shortage of legal assistance is getting worse and will continue to do so as For example legislation will reduce the amount of legal help that solicitors are able to offer to particular clients, and the Immigration Advisory Service has a full case load and is not able to take on new cases at present

• It was suggested that we put pressure on the Welsh Assembly Government through Edwina Hart to act on the decline of legal help, and resource specialist solicitors

• It was agreed that we should continue to help people fill in forms in the drop-in on Fridays.

• People can be referred to the Swansea Bay Race Equality Council, which has a solicitor in attendance on Mondays (Immigration Advisory Service) – although they often refuse to take on cases because they are too busy.

• Denis suggested that we donate money from funds to pay for legal help. But this was felt impractical at the moment because we could spend all our funds – and threaten the organisation – by trying to help just two people in this way.

• The general point was made that in the past we combined practical help with campaigning work and that we had done little campaigning this year.

5 Funding and project plans

Tom outlined current funding applications:

• A City "Play workers" bid for the drop in
• A bid from Dixons for PCs to be used in the drop ins for homework and letter writing
• A potential Comic Relief bid (to be submitted by the end of March for someone to work with the Drop in)

6 Equal Opportunity Policy

The meeting voted to accept the draft policy

7 Development of Café Society Drop In

We will need to consider putting the drop in on a more professional footing through funding applications. Shahid and his family after two and a half years of being responsible for opening and closing the sessions would like a break.

8 Timetable of committee meetings

Tom explained that we would need more committee meetings this year – at least every 2 months and possibly more if we decided to apply for money to employ someone.

The date of the first Committee meeting was set as Friday March 19^th at 7.30 PM. Meanwhile Guildhall Committee Room 5 has been booked. People were asked to note the date. We would send notices of the meeting if there was any change in arrangements.

9 Election of officers

Tom explained that each year the committee stood down and a new committee was re-elected.

He read from last year’s minutes where the responsibility of the committee was described. Committee members should agree to meeting at regular intervals to oversee group activities, to be collectively responsible for the management of finances.

The following offered to be on the committee:

Nesta Steffens, Jacqui Pany, Tony Young, Cristina Fuentes, Shahid Altaf, Tom Cheesman, Marilyn Thomas, Shaun Gillespie, Denis Ndomba, Amar Basim Salih, Angela Presgrave, Kheira Saidi, Josie Ackhurst, plus two people nominated by Tony Young

Sylvia Hoffman did not want to be on the committee officially at present, but offered to take part in a supporting role

Angela Presgrave offered to be the Chair, and Tom Cheesman offered to be Treasurer. There were no volunteers for Secretary and Equality Officer. It was suggested that at the first meeting, the committee discussed work that needed to be done and decide on Secretary and Equality Officer roles.

10 Any other business

Angela suggested that the name be changed to Swansea Bay Support Group, as in reality the group supported local people and refugees as well as asylum seekers. A discussion followed but no definite decision was taken. It was suggested that this be deferred for another time

Tom announced the Welsh Refugee Council public meeting at Brunswick on Friday 12^th March at 6.30. This was to review the current situation re asylum seekers and make plans for Refugee Week in June

Bernard offered to send copies of the new legislation on asylum seekers to the group

Tony told people that he and others were trying to set up a Social Forum in Swansea, which fosters international understanding and tolerance

Nesta suggested that people attend the meeting on Monday 1^st March at the Unitarian Church, which David Shayler would be speaking at. She felt it would be a good opportunity to sell more copies of the book and also to collect money for the Welsh Refugee Council

Jay asked for volunteers to work with her on a health group. She asked people to contact her.

NEXT MEETING

Friday March 19^th at 7.30 pm in Swansea Guildhall, Committee Room 5