CMF Global was delighted to run the Refugee and Asylum Seeker Health course in Birmingham on Saturday 12 February with the support of the CMF West Midlands Catalyst Team. Forty people attended, including doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, and charity workers, both Christians and non-Christians. The Bevan practice in Bradford gave us clinical examples and we heard via Zoom from a Dutch transcultural psychiatrist. We also heard stories from those who have experienced the health system as asylum seekers themselves.

One delegate said that the course 'got me thinking about opportunities to work with refugees in my future practice and made me rethink how I communicate with those from different backgrounds'.

The course aims to equip healthcare professionals to better care for refugees and asylum seekers. This ties in with CMF's other efforts to address this issue. A CMF blog post by Margaret Hooper (see cmf.li/337JWqI) highlights the challenges of the Nationality and Borders Bill making its way through parliament, as well as the ongoing impacts of the Covid pandemic. With a new refugee crisis from the Ukraine war, these needs and challenges are only going to increase.

CMF has recently signed a joint letter from faith leaders to the government about the Nationality and Borders Bill (see bit.ly/3i8OzVq). The letter highlights problems with the Bill and calls on the government to not discriminate between refugees based on their route of travel and to expand and restart resettlement schemes to enable safe passage for those who are vulnerable.

If you would like to take further action on this issue, there is a helpful guide about writing to your MP available at bit.ly/3MU6Mns. The CMF Global Advocacy Group would also love to hear from you if you think there are further areas that we should be speaking out on. Contact us at globalcoordinator@cmf.org.uk