International funders & Migration network meeting

Perspectives on support for people on the move: learning and reflections on how funders can enable better practice.

This is a joint meeting held by ACF’s Asylum, Refugee and Migration Network, which supports exchange among members interested in funding asylum, refugee and migration projects and programmes, and ACF’s International Network, which supports the sharing of information and practice among members interested in funding internationally.
 
Migration is increasing globally – both the forced movement of people due to war and insecurity, and those choosing to relocate voluntarily.  In May 2022, UNHCR estimated the numbers of those forcibly displaced from their homes to have exceeded 100 million for the first time on record.  This is over 1% of the global population, and equivalent to the 14th most populous country in the world.  It includes refugees and asylum seekers as well as the 53.2 million people displaced inside their country’s borders by conflict.  Wider migration, including those who have migrated voluntarily, is also increasing, with IOM estimating that in 2020 there were 281 million people living in a country other than the one they were born in, 128 million more than in 1990.
 
Refugee Council notes a growing and significant increase in the number of asylum applications, up by 63% in 2022 compared to the previous year. With migration provoking perennial political tension in the UK, the treatment and integration of asylum-seekers and refugees is an area of significant third sector activity and where the work of charities and community groups has vital importance for the people they support.
 
This timely meeting will bring together funders interested in migration with those working internationally to hear perspectives from several key organisations supporting people on the move, both overseas and here in the UK, and will provide space for reflection and discussion on the practice of independent funders in supporting this important work. 

Speakers:

Danielle Beasley, UNHCR’s Children Protection Officer and Lead for the Central Mediterranean Family Reunification project, UNHCR Tunis

Danielle Beasley is a Child Protection Officer with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. Based in Tunis as part of the office of UNHCR’s Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean, she works as the lead for the Central Mediterranean Family Reunification project.  

Eiri Ohtani, Director of Right to Remain, UK
Eiri joined Right to Remain in April 2022 to take up a newly created post of Director. Eiri has over twenty years experience in the refugee and migration sector, covering a wide-range of roles at the national, European and international levels. In the UK, she previously set up and ran the charity Asylum Support Appeals Project and the coalition, the Detention Forum. She also works as a consultant specialising in strategy, theory of change, advocacy and organisational development and regularly provides advice to foundation

Fizza Qureshi, CEO of Migrants' Rights Network

Fizza Qureshi is the CEO of the Migrants’ Rights Network. She previously worked at the Terrence Higgins Trust. Before this, she worked as a Programme Manager for an international medical humanitarian organisation where she was responsible for its UK independent health clinic, and health advocacy programme supporting migrants to access healthcare. She has previously served as Board Member of MRN, the Institute of Race Relations and Healthwatch Newham and is currently the Co-Chair of the3million and on the board of Migrants at Work.