Who we are
Campaigners for migration justice
Founded in 1995, NCADC is a national human rights organisation which supports community-led campaigns for justice in the asylum and immigration system. We currently have two Campaigns Coordinators, supported by a small team of volunteers. The organisation is managed by a voluntary Management Committee of Directors.
Why is campaigning necessary?
The circumstances facing refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers throughout Europe are more restrictive and dangerous than ever. At the same time, there are more reasons than ever forcing people to flee their homelands, and make lives in the UK. Migrants are routinely denied the right of entry, sanctuary or settlement. They are frequently denied access to justice by poor decision-making, lack of legal representation and a culture of cynicism and disbelief in the legal system.
The location of the border has shifted: no longer just at the port of entry or the territorial boundary of the UK, it has now encroached into schools and colleges, hospitals and doctors' surgeries, places of worship, the home, the private life. By denying many migrants the right to work or benefits, the government attempts to starve them out of the country.
With an immigration system designed to silence migrants and obstruct them from exercising their rights in a context of hostile political and public anti-immigrant rhetoric, the need for local campaigners and organisations to fight for migrants’ rights, and for migrants' voices to be heard, is clearer than ever.
What is campaigning?
When we ask campaigners across the country to tell us what campaigning means to them, they say:
a collective voice ... unity ... bringing people together ... raising awareness ... changing systems and minds ... standing together ... fighting for rights ... a cry for freedom ... support ... caring ...
The more we share, the more we work together, the stronger we become.
What we do
Supporting individual campaigns for the right to remain
NCADC can provide free and confidential information about campaigning to stay in the UK: we can give advice on the benefits and risks of a public campaign, campaign strategies, non-public campaigning options, and we can help publicise a public campaign. NCADC cannot provide legal advice, or run a campaign, but we can provide you with the tools you need to campaign. For more information, contact us.
In 2012 we published the first edition of our Campaigning Toolkit - an aid to understanding the asylum and immigration systems, and campaigning for the right to stay. The Toolkit is a comprehensive printed and online resource for people at risk of removal, and the groups working to support them.
The most effective campaigns are those that have an active community or support network behind them. NCADC can deliver training sessions to help groups to support and campaign for people fighting for justice in their cases. Most of this training revolves around our Campaigning Toolkit. For more information, please get in touch.
Issue-based campaigning
NCADC works with other campaigners, activists and organisations to raise awareness of injustices in the asylum and immigration systems, and human rights issues. We facilitate the Young People Seeking Safety network. We support campaign against destitution, immigration detention and the securitisation of the asylum and immigration system. We campaign against the use of charter flights to deport people en masse, particularly to war-zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan, and torture-states such as Sri Lanka.
Information service
We provide an information service through email newsletters, our website, blog pages , Facebook and Twitter. Our COI website is a repository of country of origin information to support asylum applications and campaigns. Through the information service we seek to raise public awareness of injustice in the immigration and asylum system, as well as providing resources for people campaigning for the right to stay.
