During Refugee Week 2026, we held Bradford’s First Ever Lift The Ban Festival in collaboration with our friends at SBC Theatre and Race Equality Network. The day was intended to raise awareness of the Lift The Ban campaign and create a space for local activists to develop the campaign in Bradford.

The Lift The Ban campaign asks the government to grant people seeking asylum the right to work after they have been in the UK for 6 months so that they can start rebuilding their lives and live with dignity. Currently, people seeking asylum must wait 12 months before applying for a work permit, and may only apply for jobs on the government’s Shortage Occupation Lift, an extremely limited list including occupations such as ballerina and nuclear medicine practitioner.

Granting people seeking asylum the right to work would enable them to integrate into their communities, find a sense of purpose, and lift themselves out of poverty. Currently, people seeking asylum receive about £7 a day from the government, and are prohibited from providing for themselves. The right to work could also boost the economy through increasing revenue from income tax, and enable the UK to make the most of everyone’s skills and experience.

According to Allan Njanji, Asylum Matters Campaigns Manager, ‘the lift the ban campaign is important because it gives people an opportunity to restart their lives. Being able to work and provide for oneself brings dignity into their lives and removes the stigma. For me, in my role as a campaigns manager and lead for Asylum Matters, it means that we are clearing a path for people to live independent, dignified lives.’

The festival included a mixture of panel discussions, workshops, and artistic performances celebrating the creativity of people seeking sanctuary. The day opened with a Nigerian drumming performance, and also included a fashion show, theatre pieces reflecting on migration and identity, and dancing. In the first panel discussion, people with lived experience of seeking asylum shared powerful stories of how being unable to work had impacted their lives. Later in the day, Fatima from Race Equality Network facilitated a workshop on how everyone can take part in activism, and leaders from Sheffield’s Lift The Ban campaign shared their successes and learning from their campaign so far.

The atmosphere on the day was overwhelmingly positive, with many attendees expressing their desire to ramp up local campaigning efforts. We shared frustrations and visions, connected through art and music, and hatched to make the Bradford campaign bigger and better than ever before.

Reflecting on the event, Fatima, the Project and Communications Officer at Race Equality Network said: ‘the Lift the Ban festival was a beautiful day of action, hope and solidarity. It was amazing to have worked with Bradford City of Sanctuary and Stand and Be Counted on this important event, creating solidarity connections and advocating for the right to work for asylum seekers. I look forward to future collaborations.’

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