iceras & refugee council - refugee's and politics

10.30 - 10.35 Chairwoman Ms. Yvonne Cass - Refugee Council Vice Chair 10.35 - 10.40 Mr. Jonathan Ellis- Executive Director of Advocacy & Influencing – The Refugee Council

Ms. Lul Seyoum –Founder of International Centre for Eritrean Refugees and Asylum Seekers -ICERAS

10.40 - 11.10 Mr. Jeremy Corbyn MP - Labour

11.10 - 11.30 Questions and Answers

11.30 - 12.00 Councillor Jean-Roger Kaseki - Labour

12.00 - 12.20 Questions and Answers

12.20 - 12.40 Mr. Andy Gregg -CEO Charities Evaluation Services Mr. Alasdair Mackenzie Parliamentary Outreach Officer 12.40 - 13.00 Questions and Answers

13.00 - 14.00 Lunch

CONFERENCE TO ENCOURAGE GREATER REFUGEE INVOLVEMENT IN THE UK PARTY POLITICAL PROCESS

14.00 -14.30 Mr. Tom Brake MP

14.30 -15.00 Councillor Anood Al-Samerai - Liberal Democrat

15.00 - 15.20 Ms. Vicky Booth/Ms. Maddy Pite – Candidates’ Officers – Lib. Dem.

15.20 - 15.40 Questions and Answers 15.40 - 16.10 Baroness Anne Jenkin– Conservative 16.10 - 16.30 Questions and Answers 16.30 - 16.40 Closing Remarks by Ms. Yvonne Cass - Chairwoman/ Remarks Mr. Jonathan Ellis Director

Refugee Council 16.40 - 16.50 Evaluation Forms – 17.00 Close.

AGENDA: 19th October 2011

Event Organiser: Lul Seyoum[Founder: ICERAS – [email protected]]


Lul Seyoum is an activist and facilitator promoting the human rights of women, she is particularly focused on the Horn of Africa where she was born and spent her formative years.

After witnessing first hand the issues that are experienced by women in the poverty stricken, patriarchal dominated societies in the Horn she endeavours to give a voice to women who are subjected to practices such as female genital mutilation and more generally the effects of a lack of health care provisions for women in the region.

Lul has also worked as a lobbyist with members of Parliament to issue early day motions on subjects such as the illegal deportation of Ethiopians of Eritrean origin. More recently her efforts have been focused on the ever increasing plight of refugees in their exodus from Africa. Lul works with a range of NGO’s and organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to raise awareness of the causes surrounding these forced mass migrations. In 2010 she set up the International Centre for Eritrean Refugees and Asylum Seekers (ICERAS) in order to confront these issues and assist the refugees in assimilating into their new environments under such difficult circumstances.

As a facilitator Lul has played a leading role in developing a dialogue between the Eritrean Embassy in London and several key MP’s and members of the House Of Lords as a method of attempting to influence the Eritrean government to stem the causes of the mass migration and also to stay on the right side of international law. She is also regularly consulted by the BBC and ITN for research, resource and coverage of matters pertaining to the Horn of Africa.

A trade analyst with experience working between Africa and the UK and for the UK Italian trade agency, Lul holds a BA in Economics and a Masters in Business Administration.

Yvonne Cass was born in Durban, South Africa. With many other South Africans she fought against the injustices of apartheid and stood for democracy, justice respect and human rights.

In 2006 she set up an organization called MARCO (Migrant Asylum Refugee Community Organisation) in Barnsley. Marco is run solely by volunteers and it offers support, advice, guidance and referrals to other agencies.

Yvonne is currently Vice Chair of the Refugee Council and trustee of Northern Refugee Centre. Her work is inspired by her belief that we all belong to one race irrespective of our differences and culture; that we are citizens of the word.

Chairwoman: Yvonne Cass[Vice Chair Refugee Council]


Jonathan Ellis[Director - Refugee Council]


Jonathan Ellis is Director of Advocacy & Influencing at the British Refugee Council.

He is also author of Campaigning for Success - how to cope if you achieve your campaign goal (National Council for Voluntary Organisations - 2007.) He is an external adviser on NCVO's Certificate in Campaigning and leads training sessions on INTRAC's global advocacy courses. He is a member of NCVO's Campaigning Effectiveness advisory group and is a campaign coach for the Sheila McKechnie Foundation.

He was for five years the Director of the Empty Homes Agency, an independent national charity, and before that was a campaign manager for OXFAM.

A qualified teacher, Jonathan is a visiting lecturer on the MA in political campaigning and reporting at City University.

Jeremy Corbyn was first elected to parliament in 1983 and has shown himself to be a very determined and hands-on constituency MP.

He has a weekly column in The Morning Star. A long-time supporter of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), he is one of its three Vice-Chairs. Before his election to Parliament, he was an elected councillor in the London Borough of Haringey (1974–83). He is on the London Regional Select Committee. He has voted against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and has spoken at many anti-war rallies in Britain and overseas. He is an elected member of the Stop the War Coalition steering committee. On 31 October 2006, Corbyn was one of 12 Labour MPs to back Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party's call for an inquiry into the war. He is also a prominent Amnesty International member.

Jeremy Corbyn MP


In the last five years Jeremy has tabled 709 parliamentary questions, and made 878 parliamentary speeches of one sort or another on a wide range of subjects. He has held many roles including Vice Chair of the All Party Human Rights Group (APPG), Chair of the Chagos APPG as well as the Parliamentary CND Group, and membership of the newly established London Select Committee, and of many other APPGs.

Cllr Jean-Roger Kaseki is the first Councillor of Congolese origin elected in the United Kingdom in 2010 Council elections and represent Tollington Ward in the London Borough of Islington. At the Local Authority in Islington, he is a member of the Health and Wellbeing Review Committee, the Licensing Committee, the Voluntary and Community Sector Committee and he has recently been promoted as Islington Council's Equalities and Human Right Champion. Cllr Kaseki is currently a Board Director at HFI (Homes for Islington) that is managing the Council's housing stock. He is also a Governor at Camden & Islington NHS Foundation Trust (Mental Health Trust)

He also works as a human rights campaigner and is currently an Associate at the Human Rights & Social Justice Research Institute/ London Metropolitan University. He has campaigned and lobbied for human rights in Congo (former Zaire) to be improved following mass violations of fundamental human rights there for many decades.

Cllr Jean-Roger Kaseki


When he was living in Congo, he led campaigns, conferences, publications and meetings, which denounced the various human rights violations committed by the then Congolese Government. Since moving to the UK, he has managed to keep the same spirit about fighting and campaigning for poor human rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo and kept it high on the British Government and the World Community's agenda. He said: It is vital for human rights concerns and fears from Congo to be raised at major international gatherings around the world.

Over the last 20 years Andy Gregg has held leadership positions at Islington Voluntary Action Council (IVAC), Refugee Education and Training Advisory Services (RETAS) been a trustee at The Refugee Council and Refugee Action

Most recently Andy has been at the helm of the Charities Evaluation Services and the London Advice Services Alliance (lasa.)


Alisdair Mackenzie began his career as a 6th Form College English Literature tutor. He was also a student support tutor for those students who did not have an English language background.

He began working on the House of Commons Official Report - the Hansard Reporter in Parliament in may 2001 where he reported on proceedings in Public Bill Committees, Select Committees, Westminster Hall and the main chamber of the House of Commons. He is currently a Parliamentary Outreach officer for London and the South East.

Andy Gregg[LASA]

Alisdair Mackenzie[Parliamentary Outreach Officer]

After leaving University in 1983, Tom joined Hoskyns (now Cap Gemini) leaving the company as a Principal Consultant when he was elected to Parliament in 1997.

In 1988 he became a Liberal Democrat Councillor in the London Borough of Hackney where the Labour Party had nearly 90% of the seats. Tom then moved to Carshalton, Surrey in 1990 and was elected a Sutton Councillor in 1994, consolidating the Liberal Democrats control of the council. He became a member of the Council's Policy and Resources Committee and Vice-Chair of the Policy Sub-Committee.

He stood as the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Carshalton and Wallington in 1992 and won the seat in 1997, overturning nearly a 10,000 majority. He was re-elected in 2001.

His interest in environmental issues began after University when he became a member of a local Greenpeace group, and then developed when he became joint lead member on the environment on Hackney Council this led him to become the Liberal Democrats Environment Spokesman.

Tom Brake MP

In October 2003 he was promoted from Shadow Transport Minister and appointed to the Liberal Democrats' Shadow Cabinet, serving as the party's International Development Spokesman. From May 2005 until March 2006, Tom was the party's Shadow Secretary of State for Transport. He was a Shadow Minister in the Communities and Local Government Team from March 2006 to December 2007.

In January 2008, new leader Nick Clegg's reshuffle saw Tom move to a new role as Shadow Minister for the Home Office, working with Chris Huhne. In February 2008 Tom was appointed to the prestigious Home Affairs Select Committee. On May 6th 2010 Tom was re-elected In June 2010 Tom was named Co-Chair of the new Liberal Democrat Backbench Committee on Home Affairs, Justice and Equalities. Tom will Co-Chair the committee alongside Baroness Hamwee and Lord Thomas of Gresford OBE QC.


Before entering the House of Lords in January 2011 Anne Jenkin was a self employed PR consultant and previously a secretary to a number of MPs in the House of Commons.

She co-founded Women2Win in November 2005 and is now Co-Chairman. At the 2010 general election the number of Conservative women MPs increased from 17 to 49.

Her list of patronages and work includes being a founder member of the Prince’s Trust Women’s Leadership Group. patron of Soham for Kids (school in India), patron of Restless Development.

She is Founder Chairman of Conservative Friends of International Development (launched at Conference this October.) She is on the Advisory Board of the Global Poverty Project and Vice Chairman of the All Party Women in Parliament Group


Baroness Anne Jenkin

Sarah Richardson is a Director of Edelman, the world’s largest independent public relations agency, where she provides strategic counsel for clients including Starbucks, Balfour Beatty, Capital & Counties and A4e. She continues to write for the London Evening Standard on education and the public sector and to serve as a Westminster City Councilor where she was a Cabinet Member for five years and currently chairs the Westminster Scrutiny Commission. A former commissioning editor on the Standard, Sarah has also worked for The Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian, The Independent and Vogue.

Sarah Richardson

Sarah stood as the Conservative parliamentary candidate in Leicester West in 2005 and twice as a European Parliamentary Candidate: for the south-east in the 2009 and in the East Midlands in 2004. Twice identified by The Municipal Journal as one of their ones to watch ‘40 under 40’, she has served as a non-executive director of her local NHS Trust and is a governor of an inner city school.


Cllr Anood Al- Samerai


Anood Al- Samerai has worked in the constituency office of Liberal Democrat Simon Hughes MP.

She has previous experience working in the public sector, for Guy's Hospital and Oxfordshire Social Services, and as a student worked voluntarily in orphanages in Bosnia and Bulgaria.

She has also served as a councillor in the London Borough of Southwark. She lived in Kuwait until the age of 10 with her British mother and Iraqi father and moved to London as a result of the first Gulf War. She has a degree in philosophy, politics and economics.

Vicky Booth is the National Diversity Officer for the Liberal Democrats. She is responsible for coordinating and promoting diversity initiatives across the Party, and encouraging those from a diverse range of backgrounds to represent the Liberal Democrats at all levels.

She manages central Party initiatives such as the Campaign for Gender Balance, New Generation group and the Leadership Programme, providing mentoring and support to talented individuals from under-represented groups. Vicky's previous roles includes coordinating conflict resolution training for an international charity, managing a campaign to increase the numbers of women in politics, and conducting outreach work with young people in East London.


Maddy Pite is the Liberal Democrats Candidates Officer responsible for the day-to-day administration of the approvals process for the English, Scottish and Welsh Parties. She acts as the first port of call for any general enquiry about standing as a Parliamentary Candidate.

Her responsibilities include facilitating new applicants information to Candidates' Chairs and providing support and advice to members going through the approvals and selection processes. Maddy also provides support and advice to the elected committees and Chairs.

Vicky Booth[National Diversity Officer – Lib Dem]

Maddy Pite[Candidates Officer – Lib Dem]


On behalf of ICERAS and Lul Seyoum:

Thank You for Attending

Please make sure to fill out an evaluation form before you leave.

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