Our visions and

values.

At VES, we do our best to make an welcoming and friendly environment. We first started because we saw that refugees and asylum seekers weren’t given the help and support that we believe is essential for someone who has fled from another country. Coming into a new and foreign country is an extremely hard challenge so we work hard to help asylum seekers however we can.

“

At Vineyard English school we're trying to do three things - welcome people, serve people and signpost for people.  We're a community that seek to open the door for people who might be feeling a bit isolated.  We want to serve people by providing excellent ESOL classes.  And then we point to other organisations and resources that people can benefit from in Croydon.  It's a great privilege and joy to be involved!

Andy Brims - Director

”

As of November 2022, there were:

231,597 refugees,

127,421 pending asylum cases

and

5,483 stateless persons  in the UK.

The war in Ukraine drove a large increase from the previous year.

This affects all of us.

Why do people come to the UK?

Most asylum seekers we’ve connected with had never previously thought of leaving their country - they were busy building lives in the country they were born in. I think of one student from a region in Asia, a business man with a family. He found himself on the wrong side of a political regime and it became clear that his friends and colleagues were disappearing. He sunk his life savings into getting tickets and initial visas to come to the UK to claim asylum.

Indeed, most people we’ve met were propelled to leave through a very real danger to their lives, and the lives of their family. Whether war (Ukraine, Afghanistan, Syria); breakdown in rule of law (south America, parts of Asia); conflict along ethnic lines (Uyghur people; Armenians); or natural disaster (Afghanistan and others). I think of another student, a Uyghur person from China. Many claim that the Uyghur people are a victim of genocide - others say it’s not genocide, it’s just systematic oppression. Whatever the terminology, he had ample evidence it was not a safe place to raise his children.

Many chose the UK because it was a place they could actually get to; because it is safe; because there would be a possibility of a functional life; and because they had some kind of connection to the UK, be that through family or wider social networks.

Sometimes people end up in the UK almost by chance. I think of one of our students, who was on holiday visiting London from the Ukraine. Before her holiday had finished the war broke out, and her return flight was cancelled. She’s had to follow the war from the UK through mobile phone contact with her endangered family still in Ukraine.

  • The UN states that as of the end of 2022 there were 108 million forcibly displaced people world wide. Around half of those are internally displaced i.e. they have fled their home, but are still in their country. Then around another half, 55 million or so, have had to flee their country. Half of these are from three countries: Syria, Afghanistan, and Ukraine. If the world is represented by a village of 100 people, 1.35 are refugees.

  • There are around 1400 asylum seekers housed in temporary accommodation in Croydon (nearly entirely in 5 hotels), there are also around 700 Ukranians staying with people in Croydon under the homes for Ukraine scheme, and the department for education says there are 105 unaccompanied children - mainly 15, 16, and 17 year olds in the borough.

  • The Scriptures speak clearly and consistently that all people are made in God’s image; that of all people, the people of God should be very empathetic to the plight of the refugee as at so many times through our history we ourselves have been refugees. Jesus’ fleeing potential genocide into Egypt; and the consistent call to love the ‘widow, the orphan and the foreigner’ have compelled us as a church to respond. Since planting Croydon Vineyard we’ve sought to serve ‘the last, the least, and the lost’ in Jesus name, in Croydon that has to include asylum seekers and refugees.