Can you volunteer for RAG's immigration detention helpline?

Do you want to support refugees and other immigrants?  Can you be on call for one night per week from 5 PM until 9 AM?  If so, then you could be a Refugee Action Group (RAG) helpline volunteer.

The Refugee Action Group (RAG) is setting up an out-of-hours helpline for refugees and other immigrants in Northern Ireland who are stopped and detained by the immigration authorities at times when solicitors’ offices and other advice centres are closed.  The helpline will be an emergency contact number for people who are picked up in immigration enforcement operations by the UK Border Agency, such as the secretive Operation Gull which targets people arriving at sea and air ports in Northern Ireland who are then held in police custody at unknown locations.  The helpline may help the detainee to contact a friend or relative to tell them and can signpost the caller to legal advice.  It will also allow some records to be kept of people detained, which can be used in lobbying and campaigning against anti-refugee and anti-immigrant measures.

To volunteer and to find out more, please contact RAG Chair, Paul Kazadi at kazadip@hotmail.com, giving your full name, email address and telephone number.    All volunteers will be provided with training before working on the helpline.

Read this eyewitness account of immigration enforcement operations by RAG supporter here.