0-Love Southampton 2022-2023

7.IV Refugees
Part 1 - Response to international conflicts and issues
A: Ukrainian conflict
As the Ukrainian crisis unfolded in February 2022, Love Southampton was invited to attend
bi-monthly online meetings organised by Southampton City Council’s Stronger
Communities team which was directing the local community’s response.
As outlined in section 5a, we took the decision not to set up our own initiatives to help
Ukrainians, but rather to facilitate effective communication between the Council and the
organisations we represented and partnered with who were responding to the needs of the
thousands of people displaced by the conflict.
Southampton City Council opened a Welcome Hub in the city centre in April 2022 to
signpost support for refugees arriving in the city and we promoted this through our
networks and on social media. By the time it was closed in the autumn, the hub had been
visited over 530 times by Ukrainians, 131 times by
their hosts and 46 times by professionals
(Southampton City Council data).
Our response to this crisis, following on so soon
from our response to the pandemic, helped us to
clarify our direction and role and it also
strengthened our relationship and reputation
with Southampton City Council which is a
significant and positive outcome.
B: Afghanistan
CLEAR played a key role in welcoming refugees from Afghanistan in August 2021 and
supporting new arrivals who had been placed in hotels. Having fled the battles in
Afghanistan, some were injured and some pregnant women went into labour
following the flight to the UK. Children were quickly allocated school places and
support was put in place to help the children feel welcome.
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