A NORTH London charity that has helped lift hundreds of migrants out of destitution and hopelessness has issued an urgent appeal for funding to continue its crucial work. 

Haringey Migrant Support Centre (HMSC) opened in 2013 in response to concerns around the lack of immigration advice centres in north London and to fill the gaps left by crippling cuts to legal aid and public services. 

Since then HMSC, located in Haringey — the fifth most ethnically diverse borough in Britain — has supported hundreds of migrants and asylum-seekers to access basic services, housing and immigration advice. 

But, like many charities, the centre says it’s now struggling to recover from the pandemic period, which saw many organisations’ funding streams dry up. As a result it has launched a fundraiser to ensure “HMSC can continue into the future.”

“We want our centre to continue to thrive for as long as it is needed, and we need our community to help make that happen,” HMSC interim manager Madeleine Evans said. 

Due to the complexity of immigration law and high cost of solicitors and Home Office fees, many migrants struggle to resolve their immigration status, she said. 

To support those with nowhere else to turn, HMSC offers free legal advice to all migrants, regardless of their status or country of origin, making it one of the only services of its kind in London. 

Of the more than 500 people supported by the charity last year, a third were homeless or living in precarious housing, while the same number were destitute. 

Among those was asylum-seeker Yusuf, who says his life was “without hope” before finding HMSC. 

“They helped me to … believe in a new life, and to trust that things will be OK in the future for me,” he said. 

Another visitor said the centre had lifted them “from a state of hopelessness and got me restored,” after struggling with homelessness. 

Ms Evans said that HMSC will be needed more than ever in the coming months as the cost-of-living crisis makes it even harder for migrants to cover costly legal and Home Office fees, as well as pressures from the pandemic.

She continued: “The impacts of the pandemic on HMSC have been far reaching. 

“The pressure on our visitors has only increased with huge Home Office backlogs, squeezes in access to legal aid, worsening homelessness and the impacts of 10 years of the hostile environment set to deepen even further with the introduction of the Nationality and Borders Act.”

HMSC’s fundraiser can be found here: (https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/haringey-migrant-support-centre)