This March, Newcastle’s City of Sanctuary is running a Crowdfunder campaign and we need YOUR help.

Did you know that over 500 asylum seekers are housed in temporary hotel accommodation across Newcastle? Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, hotels and hostels have been used to ‘temporarily’ house asylum seekers waiting for a decision on their immigration cases. There’s a huge backlog of cases and some asylum seekers have been living in hotels for over six months.

Far from a five-star luxury stay, asylum seekers are tightly packed into disused hotels across the city with just £8.25 a week to live on. Some hotels are on the outskirts of Newcastle, one of them being a 90-minute walk from the City Centre. This makes it incredibly difficult to access key support services such as healthcare appointments, legal support and English language classes.

Newcastle’s City of Sanctuary is a network of local organisations who want to enable asylum seekers trapped in hotel accommodation to access services across the city.

Now, we need your help to fund this important travel initiative. Can you donate just £5 to provide a travel pass which connects vulnerable asylum seekers to key services?

You can donate at https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/just-the-ticket and the National Emergencies Trust Local Action Fund will MATCH your donation. This means that every gift will have double the impact.

Thanks so much for your support.