On Friday 22nd November, a group from Swansea City of Sanctuary headed to the Central Library to meet with the MP for Gower, Tonia Antoniazzi.

After sharing our current activity, such as Community Cohesion events we are planning for 2025, we presented Tonia with a range of current issues facing sanctuary seekers in Swansea.

Tonia listened with empathy as we shared the difficulties sanctuary seekers face in high public transport costs, homelessness, and family reunification. We chatted about the good work done by local partner charities such as Swansea Asylum Seekers Support and Unity in Diversity.

Tonia was very receptive to what we shared and expressed great sympathy for the plight of sanctuary seekers. We learned that Tonia has not been regularly made aware of the issues we shared, especially how her constituents are working to make a difference for sanctuary seekers in Swansea. We agreed to be more regularly in touch to discuss these issues – it’s only by bringing cases to MPs attention that we can ask them to represent us effectively in parliament.

At our meeting, we set out two main asks from Tonia.

First, we asked if she should pledge support for Swansea City of Sanctuary, publicly aligning herself with our mission to promote a culture welcome in our city. Anyone in Swansea is able to pledge support by completing our online form.

Our second ask was that Tonia sign the “Fair Begins Here” parliamentary promise, which has been put together by Together for Refugees.

We look forward to hearing from Tonia what her response is and continuing to work with her to promote sanctuary issues in and around Swansea. In the near future, she expressed a desire to visit a local drop-in which we shall work with other local groups to arrange.