Birmingham has today officially been declared a City of Sanctuary: making an official commitment to be a place of welcome to refugees & asylum seekers.
According to the Birmingham Mail, the formal ceremony took place at 11am on Friday 4th December at Birmingham’s Town Hall. Councillor Shafiq Shah officially made a commitment to make Birmingham a welcoming place, that includes refugees & asylum seekers in the life of the city. Many community support groups in the city already offer support to refugees, and community associations, sports clubs and other local groups are being urged to help offer a welcome.
This summer Peace Hub helped people to pledge their support for Birmingham becoming a City of Sanctuary, as part of our ‘Be the Friendly Face of Brum’ theme. Thank you to everyone who pledged their support – your signatures joined together with those collected across the city by Birmingham City of Sanctuary, and helped to make today’s official commitment happen.
Today is a day to recognise the achievements of everyone who has worked hard on this issue for the last few years. But it is only the beginning: now that Birmingham has committed to being a place of welcome, we’ll need to work to live up to it. Watch this space for future updates of actions you can take – but remember that you can make a start today: