We are probably best known for our Right to Remain Toolkit guide. It is free to use, and made for people who want to learn more about the legal process, or a particular part of the legal process. You might be making an application or are thinking about it, or you might be helping someone else to do so.
Our experience working directly with communities has shown us that just sending a link to the Right to Remain Toolkit does not guarantee that someone will know how to use it, or know where to look for what they need. That is why we have put together this guide, to help people better understand how to use the Toolkit, and also to remember these points when sharing the Toolkit with others.
The information in our Toolkit comes from experts – from people who are going through the legal process or have done in the past, from those helping them, from lawyers, from community groups. It covers different stages of the legal system and procedures, with detailed information on rights and options at each stage, and advice about actions you can take to be in a better situation, or to help someone else.
Understanding the asylum and immigration system, and your own legal case, is very important. Many people have to make their way through this very complicated system without legal representation (without a lawyer). Even if you have a lawyer, it’s important to understand your own legal case – this is your case and your life and you need to keep track of what is happening and whether the lawyer is doing the things they should be.
The Toolkit and Legal Support
Currently in the UK, many people in the asylum system are facing two big issues: delays, and not being able to find a Legal Aid lawyer.
At Right to Remain, we are not lawyers so we do not give out specific legal advice to individuals. What we are trying to do in response to these big issues is to spread information about the asylum process so that people are able to educate themselves, for example through our regular Knowledge is Power online workshops. We are also focusing on showing people the difference between legal advice (which you must be qualified to give), and legal support.
Legal support is a type of assistance that can be provided by anyone to people who are going through the asylum process, without giving them specific legal advice. We believe that understanding, revisiting, and sharing our Toolkit is a way to provide legal support.
Our Toolkit is such a useful tool, but it is also very big and has a lot of information. So, we put together this guide of 5 things you should know about the Toolkit to help you get the most out of it, and share it with your friends and communities.
- The Toolkit is phone-friendly
- The Toolkit is available in many languages
- Each page of the Toolkit has an Action Section
- Search bars: find what you’re looking for
- Our video resources provide great summaries
Read on to find out more about these features, and our bonus tips!
1. The Toolkit is phone-friendly
We know that many people will be accessing our Toolkit from their phones. We have a phone-friendly version of the website which will pop up once you log onto the website. This means that it is easy to take screenshots and save them to your phone for later use.
It is very simple to use, as you can see below. Just visit http://www.righttoremain.org.uk/toolkit to get started.
2. The Toolkit is available in many languages
Many of our resources have been officially translated into a number of languages. If a page or resource has been officially translated, you will see it linked on the page like this:
If you would like to jump straight to all official translations in a specific language, you can do so by visiting the individual language pages which are linked on the Toolkit ‘About’ page, like this:
If official translations are not available in your language, or for a particular page, don’t worry! Every page of our Toolkit offers a Google translate option at the very top, and though Google translate is not perfect, you can scroll through and find your preferred language for the Toolkit, like this:
3. Each Toolkit page has an ‘Action Section’
One of the best things about the Toolkit is that it is a practical guide. This means that, instead of putting together words for you to read, we have put together actions that you can take to help your case. These actions have been developed through our research with legal experts, people who are in the system, and people who have been granted status.
You can find these actions in the orange ‘Action Section’ box which is included in most pages of the Toolkit.
Here, you can see a preview of the Action Section on our Asylum Substantive (‘big’) Interview page.
4. If you can’t find what you’re looking for – use our search bars
Our Toolkit is a big resource, and sometimes you might be looking for information that isn’t specifically listed in the menu.
That’s where our search bars come in! You can use the blue search bar to get results for information on the whole website (this includes posts from the Toolkit, News, and Legal Updates blog).
Or, you can use the yellow search bar to get results for information only from the Toolkit.
To find out more about searching the Toolkit, have a read of our blog post.
5. Many pages are summarised in our video resources
You can access our Video resources at the top of the Toolkit page, or by searching for ‘Right to Remain’ on YouTube.
Watching videos might be a good option for those of you using our resources with a group of people, or for people who prefer to learn by listening and watching instead of reading.
We have plenty of videos. Some are shorter, and summarise stages of the asylum process. Others are longer and go into more detail about the law or actions you can take at a certain stage of the process.
We also have videos on core topics (such as claiming asylum, the screening interview, the substantive interview, and what happens after a Home Office refusal) available in Amharic, Arabic, Farsi, French, Oromo, Pashto, Sorani, Spanish, Tigrinya, and Urdu.
Bonus tip: Asylum Navigation Board
The Right to Remain asylum navigation board is a way to understand each step of the UK asylum system.
You can learn about what people going through the system and those supporting them can do to be in a better position, and how all the stages of the process fit together.
As you navigate around the board, you can pick up “Information Cards” which outline what that stage of the process is, and how it can be navigated.
Many problems can arise during the process of seeking asylum. For each stage on the board, participants can look at Problem cards for that stage of the process (colour coded to match the stage on the board). There are ideas for possible solutions to those problems on the reverse, “Action” side of the card.
The navigation board – developed by Right to Remain, Lisa Matthews, Dr Vicky Canning and Calverts Cooperative – was originally a “serious board game”, with a physical real-life presence. In response to the Covid-19 crisis, we have developed it as an online resource.
It allows you to navigate through each stage of the process, read the information cards and then consider the problems that may be faced at each stage. We recommend you do this with a friend/friends. When you reach a problem card, discuss the problem with your friend. What actions can you suggest that might help in the situation? Once you have finished discussing, you can click to read the suggested actions. Then, you can move on to the next stage of the process.
Bonus tip: Young Asylum Guide
The Young Asylum Guide was developed by Right to Remain and Croydon Council to provide an overview of a young person’s asylum journey, because it is a bit different to that of an adult person seeking asylum. This guide is based on the asylum navigation board model.
The guide explains the key stages of the UK asylum process that young people will go through. It is illustrated with images that were drawn by young people who were going through the asylum process.
Each stage features a problem, solutions, and actions that can be taken. The guide also has a page with links to various organisations and people who can assist young people going through the asylum process. You can visit the ‘People who can help’ page to find out more.
As you can see, there are plenty of ways to use the Toolkit to find what you’re looking for. We hope that you find this mini-guide useful. If you have any tips of your own about how you use the Toolkit, please let us know!
If you would like to continue to learn more about how to use the Toolkit…
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