Asylum charity's 30 years of helping people

"We have more in common than that which divides us."

For the past three decades, Asylum Welcome has offered advice and support to asylum seekers, refugees and vulnerable migrants across Oxfordshire.

In that time, the topic of migration - including that of asylum seekers, refugees - has become a political football which regularly dominates the national agenda.

As it celebrates its pearl anniversary, joint chief executive of Asylum Welcome Sarah Totterdell said the charity would "continue to respond to need as it changes and evolves".

"My vision is that we will continue to listen to and respond to evolving needs in a way that involves the whole community."

"Oxfordshire has led the way and we hope that that continues," she said. "We can continue to build those connections and bring communities together."

Recent issues surrounding delays in the asylum system have turned the question of where those waiting to be processed should be housed in to a political hot potato.

That in turn has led to protests across the country including outside of hotels housing migrants - where demonstrations sometimes turned violent.

"These are people just like the people here living in Oxfordshire," Totterdell said of those claiming asylum in the UK.

"Their lives have been turned upside down by unimaginable trauma, persecution, war, and they just want to do the best for their families and rebuild their lives."

"People think they are somehow different or other and they're not, they're just people like us who are trying to do the best for their families."

Villagers in Piddington, Oxfordshire, recently voted to leave the UK in a symbolic referendum in response to government plans to house more than 1,000 asylum seekers in a nearby former Ministry of Defence site.

The Home Office say the plans would bring the asylum system "back under control", and help end the housing of migrants in hotels.

It comes as the Home Office also looks to expand Campsfield Immigration Removal Centre near Kidlington - which reopened in December following years of problems, including riots, escapes and complaints about conditions.

Totterdell said she thought the answer was for "people to be part of the community and not to be hived off into separate accommodation, which doesn't actually work well for anybody".

"The asylum seekers themselves actually can't easily access the support and services they need [from there]."

"They've been leading very difficult lives and it doesn't foster a sense of integration and how the community can work together."

At the charity's Annual General Meeting (AGM) earlier this month, it celebrated its 30th birthday by both peering into its past and looking forward to its future.

"There was a client who was at our AGM who first came to Asylum Welcome 25 years ago, when he was a teenager and he was alone," Totterdell said.

"He now runs a business, he employs people, he's contributing to the community."

"Seeing people thrive and seeing how people are able to rebuild their lives after such difficult circumstances is very inspirational."

But 2026 is not an easy time to be a charity helping asylum seekers, or to plan for the future of its service.

Totterdell said: "Immigration, both in terms of what is happening and in terms of responses, is always going to be a very changeable set of circumstances."

"The future is very unpredictable - we don't know what's going to happen globally, we don't know what's going to happen politically or in terms of policy."

"What we will continue to do is be rooted in and part of the local community and be informed by the voices of those who have lived experience of the asylum system."

"That is what we've done from the beginning."