Maria Stephens

Head of Advocacy and Influencing @childrensociety. Former @RefugeeAction. Advisory Board member for @ontherecordcic. Views my own. She/Her.

[OnTheRecord @ontherecordcic]

Please support this fundraiser for a new book of photographs by Alan Denney and poetry by Eveline Marius - exploring life in Hackney in the 1980s. Back then Eveline Marius was a young poet published by Centerprise. Not to be missed!

https://t.co/3A5ZQsIctT

[Refugee Action Union @RA_Union]

👋 Welcome to the Refugee Action Union account - a collective of staff represented by @IWGBunion.

Staff wellbeing, anti-racism and people with lived experience of seeking safety will be at the heart of all we do.

Retweet and share to show support. 🤝

[Refugee Action @RefugeeAction]

@mitatweets 🧡🧡 we're taking suggestions for episode two here:

https://t.co/pUPRcdUUvZ

[Maria Stephens @MariajStephens]

Great to see you @pinar_aksu5 !!! Hope you get on great @SMKcampaigners awards tonight! Thanks for all your amazing work on #LiftTheBan and so many other things too!!! 💜💜

[Maria Stephens @MariajStephens]

This is BRILLIANT!!!👏👏👏👏👏👏

'Is this really happening?' 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Welcome, Welcome Box!! Can't wait to see what's next.

If you need some more sunshine☀️ in your day this is it 👇

[Refugee Action @RefugeeAction]

Refugees watch famous British TV moments for the first time.

With @Milo_Edwards.

1. Come Dine With Me, 'you won Jane'

[Mariam Kemple Hardy 🧡💚 @MKemple]

When people question the Government's cruel policies against refugees, they parrot the same question over and again: "But what's the alternative?"

This is 👇

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
#StandUpForAsylum

[Maria Stephens @MariajStephens]

This story shows the brutality of the asylum system. People seeking asylum are left in limbo without hope. Communities who welcome refugees are divided by racist rhetoric from Govt.

The system is hostile by design, but a different system is possible: https://t.co/kxXjG8ElyX

[Refugee Action @RefugeeAction]

The asylum system is hostile, racist and brutal by design – it’s relentlessly traumatising for the people forced to live in it and the consequences are often too heart-breaking to bear.

https://t.co/tq8zonsyIz

[Maria Stephens @MariajStephens]

People seeking asylum are left in prison-like, conditions, facing abuse. Rooms with no windows and inedible food. This results in serious physical and mental health damage.

Asylum accommodation is cruel and hostile- this must change. Read how: https://t.co/lU3RdO7zQe

[Refugee Action @RefugeeAction]

We are deeply concerned about this report by @nicolakelly in the @guardian, which again shows that people seeking asylum are accommodated in prison-like conditions that are cruel, hostile and undignified.

[JCWI (Follow us on Bluesky @jcwi-uk.bsky.social) @JCWI_UK]

Show solidarity with people on trial for blockading Brook House detention centre to stop a Jamaica deportation flight in November 2021.
The trial starts Tuesday 30th May at Lewes Crown Court.
Join the rally that day at 9am! ✊✊✊

[Maria Stephens @MariajStephens]

A floating reminder of how low this Govt has sunk.

Hostility will never work- these cruel and embarrassing policies are the output of a Govt playing for cheap political points by punishing people looking for protection and wasting public money to do so. What a disgrace.

[Refugee Action @RefugeeAction]

A floating reminder of how low the government has sunk.

[OnTheRecord @ontherecordcic]

Come down to 198 Railton Road to see Souls Inquest - powerful and moving exhibition by families bereaved by state violence, part of @INQUEST_ORG

[Maria Stephens @MariajStephens]

'Punitive and inhumane'- yesterday many Peers called out the Govts #RefugeeBanBill for what it is.

Cruel and hostile, it rides roughshod over the refugee convention and shreds human rights protections, punishing people who seek safety in the UK.

Fight the #AntiRefugeeLaws

[Refugee Action @RefugeeAction]

"Here we go again. From the frying pan of the Nationality and Borders Act... into the fire of this punitive and inhumane Bill." - Baroness Lister

[Refugee Action @RefugeeAction]

We are one of the 174 organisations calling for the withdrawal of the inhumane Illegal Migration Bill.

Human rights, anti-trafficking, LGBTQ+, refugee support and violence against women and girls organisations are all saying the same thing: #StopTheBill

[Asylum Matters @AsylumMatters]

This barge has no place in an asylum accommodation system that should treat people with dignity and allow them to settle in communities

The Government must listen to the community & refugee organisations and scrap this ridiculous plan #CommunitiesNotCamps
https://t.co/Rs1HfJ72DR

[Maria Stephens @MariajStephens]

But it doesn't have to be this way... ☀️

@RefugeeAction we've got a vision for an asylum system anti-racism, equality, accountability and welcome. A system that is compassionate, people fleeing persecution can access and works for all.

Read more here👇
https://t.co/sgYnOO7yOa

[Refugee Action @RefugeeAction]

When they do, it’s important that people also see that there is another way.

This is our vision for the asylum system, based on the four key principles of anti-racism, equality, accountability, and welcome.

https://t.co/WRajnR7Ods

[Maria Stephens @MariajStephens]

The Govts #RefugeeBanBill will soon enter the House of Lords.

It seeks to extinguish the right to claim asylum, detain thousands of people, including children who are seeking protection in the UK, and would waste billions of £ on hostile measures.

https://t.co/U0Lu4FQIp8

[Maria Stephens @MariajStephens]

Instead @RefugeeAction we've got a vision for a new asylum system!! ☀️

One built on compassion, that is people feeling persecution can access & works for all.

An asylum system built on anti-racism, equality, accountability and welcome. Read more here 👇
https://t.co/sgYnOO7yOa

[Refugee Action @RefugeeAction]

When they do, it’s important that people also see that there is another way.

This is our vision for the asylum system, based on the four key principles of anti-racism, equality, accountability, and welcome.

https://t.co/WRajnR7Ods

[Maria Stephens @MariajStephens]

£6.83 billion of public money wasted by Govt on hostility against refugees & people seeking asylum.

People in search of protection forced into squalid housing, banned from work and left in limbo for years.

That's COSTILITY! The cost of hostility.

Fight the #AntiRefugeeLaws

[Refugee Action @RefugeeAction]

COSTILITY: the cost of hostility. The public money wasted by governments on being hostile to refugees and people seeking asylum.

Billions of pounds is being thrown away on deterrents that both don't work and are indefensibly cruel.

We call this costility. 🧵...

[Maria Stephens @MariajStephens]

'Held indefinitely for months and years with support that is so low that they can’t afford basic and essential items'

The latest Experts by Experience Podcast is out now! It's all about asylum accommodation and how things urgently need to change. Listen here 📢👇

[Maria Stephens @MariajStephens]

Rancid food & conditions so poor they result in miscarriage- @MigrantVoiceUK show the awful reality of asylum accommodation

Today the #RefugeeBanBill returns to parliament- it would detain thousands of refugees, likely in similar inhumane conditions.

Fight the #AntiRefugeeLaws