A day in the life of Breaking Barriers: meet the refugees and volunteers at our Advice Centre
Council funding enables us to help hundreds of London refugees – Simi’s Story
Mayer Brown Teams Up With Breaking Barriers
By doing so we help their successful settlement in, and integration with, local communities.
In 2013, the UK was home to 120,000 refugees and there are 20,000 new applications every year for refugee status.
Although these refugees have higher levels of education, skills and qualifications than the UK average, an eagerness to work and are mostly of working age, unemployment levels in refugee communities remain above 50%, compared to 6% for the national average.
This is due to a number of refugee-specific barriers that prevent them from finding employment.
We’ve received funding from the European Social Fund and London Councils to help hundreds of refugees like Simi rebuild their lives through training and employment. In August this year, 18-year-old Simi was homeless – awaiting official refugee status from the Home Office – and struggling to find stability in London. “Housing is the biggest problem,”… read more
