Who designed this toolkit?

Praxis Community Projects is a charity which is committed to working with vulnerable migrants. We are deeply concerned for the safety and well being of refugees, asylum seekers, refused asylum seekers, people with limited or no recourse to public funds as a result of their immigration status, young unaccompanied asylum seekers, victims of human trafficking, foreign national offenders and others who find it difficult to settle in the UK.

Founded in 1983, Praxis has worked with people from some of the world's most dangerous and troubled locations including Latin America, Francophone Africa, the Horn of Africa and the Middle East. Praxis provides advice and operates projects which seek to address the fundamental human rights of migrants.

Our vision

Praxis has a vision of a world where people are no longer forced to move but are able to do so for mutual enrichment.

Our mission

Our mission is to be with displaced communities, listening and acting through our common humanity to create and nurture reconciliation, human rights and social justice.

Our Values:
- Facilitating new relationships which have the potential to transform conflict, exploitation and injustice
- Acting with integrity
- Innovating the right response in changing times
- Building solidarity within and between communities
- Respecting and enhancing the dignity of people who are displaced

The purpose of the toolkit

This toolkit is designed to help foreign national prisoners and professionals working with foreign national prisoners to plan for their resettlement upon release.

While considering the needs of all foreign national prisoners, this pack has been commissioned because of the recognition that there has been very little assistance available for foreign national prisoners who are likely to be deported from the UK. We have therefore devoted quite a lot of the toolkit to meeting the needs of this group.

The purpose of this toolkit is NOT to encourage or to push people towards accepting deportation. We recognise that many people have many good reasons why they do not want to be or should not be removed from the UK. We believe that it is important that all foreign national prisoners understand their rights and entitlements so that they are able to make informed choices about the options open to them. We have therefore tried to present clearly the reasons why people are considered for deportation and what factors may help someone to argue against deportation alongside the tools for resettlement abroad. However, it should be noted that this toolkit is not a legal textbook and the information provided with regard to exemptions from deportation gives broad principles rather than detailed legal information. It is always advisable for any person who is facing deportation who believes that they may have grounds to contest this to seek independent legal advice.

We recognise the reality that many foreign national prisoners are deported and that many of them are poorly prepared for their return.

Foreign national prisoners facing deportation are not a homogenous ground and their needs may be very different. Some may have been away from their country for many years or may have come to the UK as a child and have very little knowledge of country to which they are being deported. Others may have only been absent for a short time and have ongoing links and relationships with contacts in the country. In addition, professionals assisting foreign national prisoners may have very little knowledge of the situation in the country to which the person may be deported. Because of this we have tried to strike a balance between providing information which is sufficiently detailed to assist those with very low levels of knowledge about the situation they are facing with useful checklists and considerations for those who are returning after a relatively brief absence. We have tried to gather into one place as much information as we are able to assist prisoners and professionals in the resettlement process and hope that this will improve the process of resettlement for all concerned. We have accessed information from a number of external sources including country profiles from the International Office of Migration, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the UN High Commission on Human Rights and various others.

While efforts have been made to check the accuracy of this information at the time of writing (September 2014) all information may be subject to change over time and we take no responsibility for services purported to be offered by external organisations. back