Here is the latest from Right to Remain – May update.

Building refugee and migrant solidarity in Kent

We learned so much from a fantastic regional solidarity conference in Kent on 22 April, opened by a group of young refugee ambassadors. The conference was co-organised by KRAN (Kent Refugee Action Network) and Right to Remain. Over 70 people from numerous local groups came together and agreed on a collective statement of solidarity: “Our Kent communities believe that together, we can create a peaceful, inclusive and just society that celebrates our common humanity.”

Right to Remain is focussing our attention on geographical areas at risk of anti-refugee and anti-migrant approaches and sentiment. We approached KRAN last year to support the migration justice movement in the area. We shared our Toolkit and examples of lived-experience-led solidarity actions from Manchester by These Walls Must Fall, which are built upon our theory of change: building knowledge, radical solidarity, and power. We have plans for joint actions with KRAN and will share our reflections in a separate blog post.

Refining our priorities for 2026/27

We held our team planning day on 14 April in London to sharpen our strategic objectives for 2026/27. We reviewed our work in 2025/26 and analysed our emerging, and very challenging, operating context. We had a lot to discuss, and, as usual not enough time! The team will continue these discussions and hold a follow-up planning day with new staff members in July.

Growing staff team

The last financial year was very tough for us – a reduced staff team led to extreme over-stretching of some staff members. We are therefore excited to welcome Louise Watts, our Legal Education Officer, who started with us on 1 May in Birmingham (you can read about Louise here). Our Communications Officer, Carla Montenmoyer-Fitter, will also join us on 18 May, and she is based in London. Including Tigist Estifanos, our Finance and Operations Assistant who joined the team at the end of March, our staff numbers will increase from four at the end of the last financial year to seven.

Future workshops

May is a busy month for us with staff induction, and we are not running any Knowledge is Power sessions. We are, however, running our Introduction to the Right to Remain Toolkit session on 20 May. Louise will be joining the Hope Project’s Community Legal Conference later in the month. In June, we will be running the following sessions, with further additions likely:

• 4 June – Knowledge is Power: the asylum system
• 15 June – Building collective safety – against racist immigration enforcement (as part of Northern Race Equality Conference in Leeds)
• 25 June – Knowledge is Power: asylum appeals

Public legal education as a tool to build solidarity

‘What does solidarity look like?’ is a question Right to Remain consistently explores. This question grows more urgent daily, as our community of people seeking asylum, refugees, migrants, and their allies endure and push back against the hatred and hostility incited by politicians, media commentators, and far-right groups. At Right to Remain, we are particularly interested in practical solidarity that not only provides relief but builds the collective power of our community.

We see how our public legal education unites and lifts up the Right to Remain community in many places (as demonstrated by our recent Radical Solidarity Hub session on asylum appeals). It is within this context that Ally, our Lead Legal Education Officer, wrote this piece, Solidarity through legal support: what we have is how we show up for each other. Please read it and let us know what you think.

Right to Remain team