About us
How we work
Trustees and patrons
Our funders
Local partners
Our history
We’ve grown and developed new services since 1989, when local people first got together to campaign against the imprisonment Kurdish asylum seekers, but the welfare and rights of asylum seekers and refugees remain at the heart of all we do.
We began working with people seeking asylum in 2001. Across the country the government placed 500 people in 10 prisons, one of which was in Winchester and a Winchester Visitors Group was established. However in 2002 the policy of detaining people seeking asylum in prisons was phased out and they were instead given accommodation in a number of towns and cities, one of which was Southampton. Thus began our work based on befriending individuals and families while they waited for their cases to be resolved.
Our volunteer befrienders were trained to help them deal with the particular issues faced by people seeking asylum, who were carefully matched with their befrienders. Every volunteer was given support from a “buddy” and in 2003 support groups were set up, enabling the befrienders to meet monthly to share concerns and discuss issues in a confidential and supportive environment.
In 2004 it became evident that many of those we helped were destitute. ASSIST (Asylum Seekers Support in Southampton) was formed to give them weekly financial support, backed up by a fundraising sub-group making grant applications to charitable trusts. A Money Allocation Group (MAG) was also established to agree and scrutinise payments. In 2004 the group achieved charitable status, with trustees drawn from the committee members, and at the same time changed its name to SWVG.
In 2005 we employed our first part time paid administrator and in 2006 an events sub group was formed, to organise events to raise funds and awareness of our work. In 2008 we joined with other local groups to launch the Avenue Multicultural Centre. This drop-in centre is held every Friday at the Avenue St Andrew’s Church in Southampton. It provides information services and acts as a meeting place for refugees and people seeking asylum.
In 2009 we launched what was then called our Legal Justice Project, enabling us to engage an immigration lawyer to act as a legal advisor, undertake client reviews, address legal questions and provide training for the group, and fund some legal costs for those seeking asylum.
The 10th anniversary of SWVG was celebrated in 2011. The same year we participated in the “It’s my home now” project, collecting stories and pictures from refugees and people seeking asylum in Southampton and Winchester. These were published in a book and exhibited locally.
In 2012 the Bromley Trust funded a review of our work. The consultants’ final report “Investing in the Future” was launched at a reception in the House of Lords attended by volunteers, those we help, as well as funders and members of other groups.
In 2013 we launched new social events to supplement the New Year and Summer parties held for those who we support. In 2016 we set up campaigns and communications sub-groups, to campaign locally and nationally, re-launch this website, establish a presence on Facebook and Twitter and produce leaflets and newsletters.
In 2017 we worked to address new laws which prevent us from renting rooms from private landlords. After research and legal advice we took the step of leasing a house to run as a hostel, enabling us to stay within the law whilst continuing support those who would otherwise be homeless. We also started to offer one-to-one English language teaching, a new service which grew rapidly.
In 2018, SWVG was visited by Caroline Nokes, MP the Home Office Immigration Minister, and clients had the opportunity to speak to her about their experiences.
In summer 2019, the new SWVG allotment where volunteers work with asylum seekers, produced over 100kg of fruit and veg including a giant 17kg pumpkin. SWVG became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, charity no. 1183558.
In 2020 the Covid pandemic required massive changes to our work. Many people seeking asylum were placed in a hotel in Southampton. We moved our teaching online, in some cases issuing routers and laptops to enable this. All face-to-face work had to stop, so our Friday drop-in had to close. Having supported people mainly online for 18 months, we re-opened the drop-in in September 2021. We continued to teach partly online, enabling us to reach more people. Our volunteer-base was becoming more inclusive, and we were delighted to recruit two people with lived experience as trustees. We joined the new national umbrella network organisation Together with Refugees to link with others campaigning on behalf of people in the asylum system.
Without notice in November 2022, around 70 people were moved into a hotel at a service station off the M3 at Winchester, where the only exit from the area was onto the motorway. The men remained there for five months, during which time we arranged extensive support and English classes for them, with the help of two English speakers among their number. We became involved with others in 2022 in trying to oppose government plans to ship people to Rwanda for their asylum claims to be processed there. At the end of 2022 a second hotel opened in Southampton, but closed in 2024.
In 2023 we started to run help desks in the hotels to take the pressure off our Friday provision. When the Bibby Stockholm barge in Dorset began to house people seeking asylum, we strongly opposed its use, but tried to continue to support people from our area who were moved there. During that year, as needs were changing, we closed the hostel that we had run since 2017. We instead encouraged our members to join Refugees at Home, and developed a team of housing advisers to help people find accommodation.
In 2024, SWVG became the sole group managing the drop-in centre, welcoming several other charities and organisations as guests. We also launched the Cooking For Friends project, which allows people, especially those living in the hotel, to cook a meal from their home country on Saturday nights. Twice a year the cooks prepare a magnificent ‘global buffet’ as a fundraiser. Also that year, SWVG joined other local groups in trying to support people who had to report to immigration officials at a local police station. Under the plan to deport people to Rwanda, detentions and the fear of detention were increasing. For the next two years the group was a reassuring presence at the police station, offering to take details of a solicitor or friend and inform these contacts if someone was detained.
Our work in Winchester expanded during 2025, as the Home Office started placing more people seeking asylum there. We work in conjunction with a Winchester church, running a welcome hub for refugees. In the summer of that year, the far right began protesting at least weekly outside the remaining Southampton hotel. In August a lit flare was thrown through a window of the hotel, but fortunately was quickly put out. Hostility towards people seeking asylum was growing, and we took steps to make our Friday drop-in centre less obvious to passers-by.
Demonstrations outside the hotel continued until spring 2026, when there was a short lull before another outburst of anger in Southampton over the death of a young man, Henry Nowak, who had been stabbed. The dismissive reaction of the police and their misreading of the situation were perceived by some to have been caused by anti-white prejudice. This attracted international attention and triggered racist protests in the city and outside the hotel. Various marches brought well-known far-right figures to Southampton. The situation has been very intimidating and the work of SWVG has been more important than ever.
