Supporting refugees and displaced people on move, or who have just arrived in Northern France, Greece and the UK, with access to multilingual, accessible, legal info, support, as well as phone charge, Wifi, basic mobile phones and battery packs.
Our mission is to assist refugees and displaced people in having access to the rights that people with European passports take for granted.
Despite the ‘Calais Jungle’ being destroyed in November 2016, displaced people continue to arrive in Northern France. There are currently roughly 1,500 displaced people sleeping rough in the region.
Refugees arriving in the region are forced into temporary shelter wherever they can, often in forests and industrial parks in the area. Many of the people here are trapped in a state of limbo.
In collaboration with a network of lawyers and our close-knit team of cultural mediators, we produce and distribute verified, accessible and timely multilingual legal information on the French and UK asylum system, as well as up-to-date info on services available in the region.
In Northern France today we have a small, dedicated team of volunteers, who provide legal information workshops, internet connection, phone charging, basic mobile phones and battery packs.
NORTHERN FRANCE.
GREECE.
Most displaced people in Greece are stuck in a state of limbo, trapped in a notoriously slow asylum procedure and legally unable to move off the Greek islands camps.
In Greece, Refugee Info Bus are based in Athens and produce multilingual legal information videos which provide clear and accessible explanations of the complex asylum system.
In collaboration with several former leaders of the IRC’s Refugee.Info Greece project, we have been working over the past couple of months to set up the Information Justice Project (IJP).
OUR ANNUAL REPORTS.
Supporters from around the world, like you, make the Refugee Info Bus’s work possible.
At a time when factual information and communication is critical, your support is essential in enabling Refugee Info Bus’s work to continue.
If you would like any more info on our work, please do not hesitate to drop us an email, on
, or give us a call on +44 7402402798
On the ground, we operate out of a mobile bus.
Online, we have a strong following of service users on Facebook who request information from us in Farsi and Arabic, as well as a growing number of people messaging us in Amharic, Tigrinya, Oromo and Urdu, stretching from the UK, to France, Germany, Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan, and Lebanon, (Facebook doesn’t provide statistics from inside Iran and Syria). Through our online videos and services, we are able to reach thousands of displaced people.
Over the past year, our online following and the demand for our service on Facebook has grown significantly, with users requesting and receiving vital information on their rights and what options are open to them in Farsi and Arabic, with increasing numbers of people messaging us in Amharic, Tigrinya, Oromo and Urdu, stretching from the UK to Greece, France, Germany, Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan and Lebanon.
Get Involved:
We work with a close-knit team of 7 remote cultural mediators and translators, all of whom are refugees themselves and have gone through the process of claiming asylum. They are dedicated to translating legal information as well as to answering facebook messages from service users, wherever they may be. If you speak Arabic, Farsi, Tigrinya, Oromo or Pashto and are interested in joining our team, drop us an email and CV to mail@refugeeinfobus.com. All of our cultural mediators and translators are reimbursed for their work and provided with computers and kit needed in order to do their work.
Volunteer:
Our team in Northern France is made up of dedicated, long-term volunteers. Volunteers need to be able to resilient to an ever-changing, nuanced environment. Day to day work is varied but can include research and production of information, contributing to and facilitating workshops, and providing, wifi, phone and information services in the field. We require our team to be drivers, and being fluent in English and France is a huge advantage.
While it is often not possible to volunteer in Northern France for long periods of time. We are always on the look out for remote volunteers, or people who are interested in getting involved, we are particularly interested in hearing from people who may be able to help with fundraising, graphic design or visual content.
If you are interested in volunteering, drop us an email on mail@refugeeinfobus.com. All volunteers, if they require, are provided with a stipend for living expenses and accommodation.