Tees Valley of Sanctuary held a day of action campaigning on Lift The Ban.   This is an organisation campaigning on giving asylum seekers in the UK the right to work after they have been here for 6 months.  Lift the Ban is a coalition of 150 organisations, and is supported by Labour, Liberal Democrats, SNP, Plaid Cymru, and the Green Party, as well as a number of individual MPs.

We were organised by Jen Laws of Asylum Matters, who made sure that we had good information, post cards to send to the Home Secretary, petitions to sign, and placards to write our slogans on.

Araz gave a personal plea for the right to work, citing not just his own skills and qualifications, but others too, all wanting to be able to contribute to our society

The gathering was then addressed by Andy McDonald MP and the new Mayor of Middlesbrough, Andy Peston came along too.  We had this photo of us all proclaiming, with some very cleverly written placards, Lift the Ban !