Friday, April 30, 2010

Asylum Aid and Internet; The effective combination towards success


Asylum Aid is a very well organized non-governmental organization (NGO). In the last 20 years Asylum Aid has grown and spread widely within the United Kingdom. Their strategy, making great emphasis in the use of internet as their main tool, has been more than successful Targeting Migrants and refugees not just in the UK but abroad. We have to make clear that a NGO as Asylum Aid it is not dedicated just for the migrants or their interests of seeking refuge in the UK; but at the same time for UK citizens with concerns towards the asylum or migration of non-UK citizens and as a very important part of their assignment to influence governmental migration policies . The aim of this research it is to asses the impact internet has in nowadays daily life and the importance of this 20th century tool for NGOs to address objectives that decades ago were impossible to target in such a small period of time and with such successful results.
Asylum Aid has stated their mission: independence from any governmental institution, in other words complete sovereignty, action and policies to be implemented through internet with pressure from none one but the migrants seeking for refugee or asylum. A national UK charity identified with human rights protection and against any abuse of any kind of threat towards them.
Asylum Aid works hand by hand with the Home Secretary, the Minister for Immigration, The Solicitor General, the Chief Executive of the UK border agency and with senior UKBA and Legal Services Commission officials.
In it is website, Asylum Aid, has a friendly structure of six main topics, each based and supported with clear information. Each presents useful information for asylum seekers, as 1) information about Asylum Aid, their mission, their aims and values. 2) Advice and how to get it, timetables of their telephone contact line, office address in case of need it, but more importantly the whole information of how asylum seekers will be help, Asylum Aid states ‘confidential and independent legal advice and representation’ as the important message. 3) A project specialized in women, which always are the one’s who suffer the most, the project activities for them, sample videos, CDs, DVDs, links to more exact information about their campaigning or training workshops; a link to what Asylum Aid targeted as ‘Every Single Woman’ and also a film it is showed. 4) Publications, Policy and Campaigns it is the next topic addressed; the organization tackle here very important information as how they are working in current campaigns as the one of ‘every single women’, a variety of their publications, annual reports, recent cases, networks within many others links. 5) Crucial is the fifth topic, ‘how to get involve’, donations, volunteering and funding is the main objective and a range of explanations of how the money will be spend. 6) Finally the Asylum Rights Watch mainly for contact purposes either of asylum seekers or for professional contact.
It is important to mention the structure of their website (six points above), because in an era of globalization, where communicating with people around the world in seconds, is simple, quick and effective; Asylum Aid has based great part of their progress in it. As it is showed in their 2009 online report, Asylum Aid mention internet and the impact of it as a progress on ‘making the asylum process in the UK more gender-sensitive’, ending what they called ‘the enforced destitution of people seeking asylum’ and of ‘enhancing the quality of UKBA decisions by improving early access to legal representation’. Therefore internet nowadays has been crucial for the NGO and it is progress to facilitate the contact with asylum seekers and with the effective work made towards the creation of an influence in the government and it is migration policies.
In sum Internet nowadays it is not anymore just crucial for our everyday life, but at the same time is of great importance for the widely spread of objectives and challenges to help people been abused abroad and to target the challenges of our great future.

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