BBC Children in Need has given £1,918,712 in 30 grants to ten asylum and refugee charities between October 2016 and October 2026, independent journalist Charlotte Gill reported on Thursday, ahead of the charity’s annual appeal, which is broadcast live on BBC One and iPlayer at 7 PM tonight from MediaCityUK in Salford.
The charity’s own 360Giving extract, last modified on November 4, matches her amounts, dates and official descriptions exactly. The awards include £75,000 to Asylum Aid on February 14, 2024 for “legal representation for 60 children in the asylum and trafficking systems,” and £113,964 to Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Refugee Forum on 12 October, four weeks before appeal night.
Gill’s £1,918,712 figure is a selected total for those ten organizations, not the charity’s entire asylum and refugee spend. The same official file shows a further 47 grants, totaling £2,419,596, to 20 other organizations with “refugee” or “asylum” in their name over the same period.
Top Recipients.
Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Refugee Forum received the largest share of her list, £366,467 across six grants, for support, weekly activities and befriending for refugee and asylum-seeking children and young people. Young Roots, formerly the Refugee Youth Project, received £336,932 across five grants for activities, advice hubs and mental-health support in Croydon and Brent. Kent Refugee Action Network received £260,251 across four grants, including holiday activities for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
Asylum Aid’s £75,000 project grant, planned to run from 1 March 2024 to 1 March 2027, is recorded as funding legal representation so that 60 children “will benefit through having a legal status, appropriate housing, education and access to mental and physical healthcare.” Refugee and Migrant Justice, formerly the Refugee and Migrant Forum of Essex and London, received £74,414 across three grants, including £70,987 in February 2019 for “legal advice and support that will benefit children through helping their families confirm their status in the UK.” The charity now says it offers immigration advice and is “active campaigners.”
Other awards on Gill’s list include £252,402 to the Indoamerican Refugee and Migrant Organisation for English classes, homework clubs and family support, £222,322 to the Asylum Support and Immigration Resource Team in Birmingham, which is now permanently closed, £188,128 to Community Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers for youth clubs for unaccompanied refugees, £85,136 to the Streatham Drop-in Centre, and £57,660 to Swansea Asylum Seekers Support for play schemes.
Where the Money Goes.
Apart from the legal representation and legal advice awards, the official grant descriptions are largely for youth clubs, holiday activities, English classes, play schemes, mental health support and “befriending opportunities for refugee and asylum seeking young people.” Six of the 30 awards are standard £500 cost-of-living uplifts from October 2022. The grants run across a decade, not a single appeal year.
The extract as a whole covers more than £430 million of awards from 2015 to 2026, across many causes. A BBC briefing published today says Children in Need “can only afford to fund one in six organisations that ask for help.” The grants come from donated appeal funds.
The National Pulse reported on November 11 that the charity had funded migrant activism and trans youth projects, including a £15,000 award to Ethnic Minority Sports Organisation Northern Ireland.
