Borough of Sanctuary

Kingston is a place that welcomes everyone - we recognise and value the contribution of refugees, migrants and those seeking sanctuary in the Royal Borough of Kingston.

We pride ourselves on providing sanctuary to refugees, asylum seekers, and vulnerable families and are committed to welcoming and including them in the life of the borough. We actively seek ways in which we can support them. That’s why we are committed to becoming a recognised ‘Borough of Sanctuary’, through the national charity ‘City of Sanctuary’.

What is a Borough of Sanctuary?

The ‘City of Sanctuary’ network is a growing group of cities, boroughs and towns building a more welcoming UK for people forced to flee their homes.

Visit the City of Sanctuary website

What are our commitments?

In December 2022 we passed the City of Sanctuary motion, setting out our commitment to becoming a borough of sanctuary and working towards the City of Sanctuary award. 

In this motion we committed to ensuring a strong culture of welcome is applied across all services within the council. The motion was fully supported by all parties.  ​

Our commitment to become a borough of sanctuary is in line with our priority to create a fairer Kingston, a place where everyone, whatever their background, has the opportunity to reach their potential and enjoy a good quality of life.

Our Equality, Diversity, Inclusion Strategy (2021-2025) sets out our aspirations to become a welcoming borough of opportunity for all, to deliver better services, designed for those who need them, where every voice is listened to and valued. 

What are we doing to become a Borough of Sanctuary? 

We are working with communities and stakeholders to learn about, embed, share good practice and work together to enact the principles of the Cities of Sanctuary movement.

To make this commitment a reality, these are some of the actions we are taking: 

• We have joined the City of Sanctuary Local Authority Network
• We celebrated Refugee Week, sharing the contribution of refugees to our local community
• We have set up the Kingston Resettlement Board to oversee the work of our resettlement programmes.
• We provide a Welcome space at Guildhall 2 for everyone to access face to face advocacy through our voluntary sector partners.
• We have established dedicated arrival information webpages for those who are new to the borough
• We set up the Kingston ESOL & Communication Strategic Group in 2010 to work with partners in a strategic and coordinated way to bring best outcomes for residents learning English
• We set up the Kingston Employment and Volunteering Group in 2019 with stakeholders to improve employment and volunteering opportunities
• We have bespoke commissioned services for refugees and vulnerable migrants in Kingston

We’ll be sharing our ambitions over the coming months and will be focusing on the concepts of:

Learning: What does it mean to seek sanctuary?

Embedding: What positive action are we and the community taking to embed welcome, safety and inclusion in our borough?

Sharing: How are we and the community fostering solidarity between receiving communities and people seeking sanctuary and what are we sharing about these stories.

For more information, please email: refugee-migrantschemes@kingston.gov.uk