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@symaag_

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South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group
Fighting for migrants and against racism
Human rights have no borders ✊🏿✊🏽✊
#dignity_not_detention

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*🚨REMINDER Saturday 10th Oct
@ 1pm - City of Sanctuary, 37/39 Chapel Walk 🚨*

SYMAAG is a proud member of the Lift the Ban coalition, which campaigns to reverse the decision taken by the Labour government in 2002 to ban people seeking asylum from working.

Building on the support from the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce; we will be providing information and training on how to get local businesses to support the campaign, as well as planning on how we take this to the streets of Sheffield from November onwards

As with all our bi-monthly meetings, the session will be friendly and informal, with no former experience needed. Lovely food will be provided thanks to RADMASH 🥰

We look forward to seeing you there! by @symaag_

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8 days ago

10 October marks the World Day Against the Death Penalty.

International organisations, such as Amnesty International, emphasise the following core principles on this occasion:
* Irreversibility: The death penalty is an absolute and final punishment. If a judicial error occurs, the life of an innocent person cannot be restored.
* Lack of Deterrence: Statistical studies demonstrate that the death penalty has no measurable effect on reducing serious crime rates compared to other forms of punishment.
* Systemic Discrimination: In many societies, capital punishment is disproportionately and unfairly applied against ethnic and religious minorities, as well as low-income groups.

* Right to a Fair Trial: Defendants facing the death penalty must have unrestricted access to independent legal counsel and a fair, public trial.

In its annual report, Amnesty International revealed that the Iranian Islamic regime executed at least 2,159 people in 2025. This figure more than doubled the 972 executions recorded in 2024, marking the highest number of executions in the country since 1981.

Since the outbreak of military conflicts involving the United States and Israel, the Iranian Islamic regime has drastically accelerated its execution machine. Rights groups have documented that the Islamic Republic is using these wartime conditions and the redirection of international attention to intensify domestic crackdowns and systematically eliminate political opponents.
The key data and reasons behind this situation are as follows:
* Record-Breaking Figures: According to joint reports by human rights organisations, Iran executed at least 1,639 people in 2025, representing a 68% jump from the previous year and the highest number of executions recorded since 1989. This trend has continued aggressively into 2026, with more than 900 people hanged between January and August alone.
Continuous Executions: Over the past year, executions have become a constant routine, with virtually no week passing without reports of new hangings being carried out
Crushing of the January 2026 Protests:
the state launched an unprecedented wave of thousands of killings and crackdowns. taken in Moftabad, Markazi, Iran by @symaag_

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8 days ago

TOMORROW - join us for the Visions festival at SADACCA!

The festival will give people the chance to hear new ideas, take part in discussion, and get organised! Workshops will cover local, national and international issues and provide a space for radical, collaborative and creative political education.

Tickets for the daytime festival are on a sliding scale from £0 to £15. Book your place at sheffieldtransformed.org/visions or through the link in our bio!

Across the day, there'll be ten interactive sessions covering:
♦️ The power of international solidarity
♦️ Resisting AI and the hostile environment in healthcare
♦️ Protest songs and communal singing
♦️ Youth organising and youth groups
♦️ Sheffield's radical history
♦️ The politics of nature
♦️ Community organising across social divides
♦️ Life as an activist parent
♦️ Samba drumming workshop

Sessions will include contributions from a wide range of groups, including:
♦️ South Yorkshire Migrant and Asylum Action Group
♦️ Sheffield Tenants Union
♦️ Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign
♦️ Anti Raids Sheffield
♦️ Chile Solidarity Network
♦️ Powerful South Yorkshire
♦️ Woodcraft Folk
♦️ Sheffield Socialist Choir
♦️ Chilypep
♦️ No Palantir in the NHS
♦️ 5 Rivers Rising Samba Fusion band

We want children and parents to be able to enjoy the Visions festival together, so there'll be play areas and kid-friendly sessions!

Local activist groups will also be running stalls and we'll be holding a book swap too, so bring along your old books and pick up something new to read! Graphic for "Sheffield Transformed: Visions," happening Saturday 19th September 10am–5:30pm at SADACCA (S3 8JB). by @symaag_

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a month ago

Join us for the 53rd anniversary of the coup in Chile. For those we lost, and for those who are still fighting for Truth and Justice. Memory as an act of resistance ✊🏽

📣 With speakers from CSC, CoS, OTJC, SPSC, STUC and VVIDY. Together we stand, united in struggle ❤️ taken in Sheffield by @symaag_

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a month ago

📣Announcing... Solidarity Not Charity: Harnessing the Power of International Solidarity!

Hear from three local activists — Maria Vasquez-Aguilar, Anahita Hosseini-Lewis and Jonny Feldman — with a wealth of experience in building international solidarity. They’ll draw on their personal experience to explore the key principles that underpin effective solidarity work, discuss the complexities and challenges of this work, and answer questions from the audience.

The session has been organised in partnership with South Yorkshire Migrant and Asylum Action Group, Chile Solidarity Network, and Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

This session is part of the Visions festival at SADACCA on Saturday 19th September. Check out the full festival programme and book your place at sheffieldtransformed.org/visions or through the link in our bio! Graphic with header "Sheffield Transformed: Visions" and session title "Solidarity Not Charity." The graphic features a photograph of a Palestine solidarity protest. by @symaag_

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a month ago

Join us later this month for two events that focus on migrant justice and opposing the far right.

On Thursday 18 June, we'll be screening the film 'A World Not Ours'. All profits from this event will be donated to City of Sanctuary Sheffield to help fund their vital work supporting people seeking sanctuary.

Based on personal recordings, family archives, and historical footage, the film is a sensitive and illuminating portrait of three generations of exile in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Helweh, in southern Lebanon.

Then, on Saturday 20 June, join us for a workshop on 'Community Resistance to the Far Right'.

At this free event we'll:
- hear from those with lived experience of the UK's border regime and the hostile environment
- learn about work that is already taking place in Sheffield to combat the rise of the far right
- discuss how we can collectively organise in our communities for migrant justice.

Featuring speakers from Migrants Organise, Voice of Voiceless Immigration Detainees Yorkshire, and Lift the Ban.

🎟️ Book your place for either of these events at tickettailor.com/events/sheffieldtransformed or through the link in our bio! A graphic promoting a film screening of 'A World Not Ours' on Thursday 18th June from 7:30pm at Broomhall Centre, and a workshop on 'Community Resistance to the Far Right' on Saturday 20th June, 10:30am to 2pm at SADACCA. by @symaag_

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4 months ago

🇸🇩 Please join us on Tuesday 9th June for an evening of learning and solidarity 🇸🇩

We will be joined by human rights activists, humanitarian aid workers, Sudanese film producers, and people with lived experience of displacement from Sudan to discuss the current situation in the country and the experiences of those who have had to flee.

We will also share some short films and eat traditional Sudanese food together.

⏰ 6-8pm; Sheffield Hallam Owen Building, S1 1WB

A collaboration between Sheffield Hallam’s Film and TV Production course, SYMAAG, City of Sanctuary, SOS for Sudan, Sheffield for Sudan, Migrants Organise, and Sheffield University.

‼️ Tickets are FREE however please reserve one so we have an idea of numbers: www.tickettailor.com/events/sheffieldsolidarityproject/2221613

✊ For those who are able to donate, we will be taking donations on the night to support the Sudanese community in Sheffield. taken in Sheffield Hallam University by @symaag_

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4 months ago

#stop_execution_in_iran
Iran: Executions and Mass Arrests Under War Cover

According to the UN, since early March, Iran has executed at least 21 people and arrested over 4,000 under “national security” charges.

This is not just repression—it is systematic political control using war as justification.

Many detainees face torture, forced confessions, and unfair trials. Some have been disappeared. Even children are at risk of death sentences under vague security laws.

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk has condemned the crackdown, calling for an immediate halt to executions and the release of arbitrary detainees.

But the pattern is clear:
War on the outside, repression on the inside.

Iran remains one of the world’s top executioners, where justice is replaced by fear and silence.

This is not security. This is state violence. by @symaag_

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6 months ago

Darfur Again: War, Power, and Global Complicity

This is not just a humanitarian crisis. It is a political disaster driven by power struggles, foreign interests, and global silence.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been torn apart by a power struggle between the army led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemeti)—a militia with roots in the Janjaweed responsible for past atrocities in Darfur.

What is happening today—ethnic violence, mass killings, and forced displacement of non-Arab communities like the Masalit—is not random. It is systematic and political.

This war is also being fuelled from outside:

Egypt supports the army

The United Arab Emirates is widely reported to back the RSF

Gold trade and arms networks are sustaining the conflict

Over 1 million people have fled into Chad, a fragile country now absorbing the consequences of a war it did not create.

And where is the international community? Underfunded aid, weak political pressure, and strategic silence.

This is not just Sudan’s crisis.
It is a result of militarisation, resource exploitation, and international complicity.

Darfur is burning again—and the world is looking away. taken in Sheffield by @symaag_

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6 months ago

25 April 2022

Kurdish rights protesters pepper-sprayed in unprovoked police attack in Sheffield, campaigners say.

KURDISH rights protesters were pepper-sprayed and hit with batons in an unprovoked attack by police at a demonstration in Sheffield, campaigners have claimed.

One man was also arrested under counterterrorism legislation and his home raided.

About 100 people, including families and children, joined the protest outside Sheffield town hall on Sunday which had been called to condemn Turkey’s recent attacks on Kurds in Iraq.

It was policed by officers from South Yorkshire Police and the region’s counterterrorism force. Protesters described the atmosphere as initially peaceful. Metin Arslan, a member of the city’s Kurdish community, told the Morning Star that this changed when two officers came over after the demo had dispersed and seized several flags. Asked why, the officers said the flags showed support for proscribed organisations and they needed to question Mr Arslan. Later he was told by the officers that he was free to go, but when he tried to pick up the flags, he was arrested. Others who tried to retrieve the flags were hit with batons across their hands and targeted with pepper spray, he said. Another was allegedly punched in the face. “I think this an absolute disgrace by the South Yorkshire Police,” Mr Arslan said.“We have done a lot of demonstrations with the same flags, the same banners, but they were very much brutal in this one.”Another protester said: “That’s all because of a flag? We’ve been to hundreds of demonstrations and we have never seen this.”John Grayson of the South Yorkshire Migration & Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG), one of organisers of Sunday’s demo, told the Morning Star that one woman was left vomiting after being pepper-sprayed. “There were children screaming, it was very very distressing.”Mr Arslan said he was held at the police station for more than seven hours where he was interrogated by counterterrorism officers and his phone seized. His home was also raided by 20 officers while his children were there alone. He said the ordeal shows that “the British government and police, especia by @symaag_

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6 months ago

We are hosting another fundraiser🥳🥳🥳 Save the date - the 2nd May!!!

We are super excited to be going back to Arts in the Right Place with the same wonderful DJs along with the addition of the fantastic Maypleef. We will be dancing until our feet hurt!🕺🕺It is going to be a lovely community night, full of solidarity and joy. There will be live music, arts and crafts and delicious food to enjoy.

All the money raised will be going towards our campaign, which is fighting to lift the ban on the right to work for people seeking sanctuary.

The gorgeous poster for our event has been made by our very own, Lois Taylor!!🥰🥰

Tickets are out, link in bio! We can’t wait to see you all there.🤗🤗 by @symaag_

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6 months ago

Independent journalists in Tehran continue to gather accounts that offer a more credible and nuanced picture of life during the war involving Iran, Israel, and the United States. However, they do so at immense personal risk—facing the threat of arrest, torture, or worse. As one journalist told me, “In wartime, you never really know how far things might go.”

Through images and interviews, they depict a city under severe psychological strain—a place where people live in constant anticipation of the next explosion, while also enduring the unrelenting fear imposed by the state’s security apparatus.

At present, absolute repression prevails. Open dissent has become virtually impossible, as government surveillance is everywhere. Footage obtained shows regime supporters patrolling the streets at night in vehicles adorned with the Islamic Republic’s flag, broadcasting messages through loudspeakers—a clear warning to anyone contemplating protest.

Only the official narrative is permitted. State television broadcasts images of rallies and funerals, presenting a carefully constructed version of events in which the United States and Israel are portrayed as the sole aggressors responsible for widespread destruction.

Interviews with officials and pro-government demonstrators are filled with repeated denunciations of the US and Israel. In state propaganda, the Iranian people are depicted as willing to endure suffering and even embrace martyrdom.

Yet conversations with ordinary Iranians reveal deep contradictions. Many express a desire for the government to fall, while at the same time feeling that both they and their country are under external attack.

Residents of Tehran live in fear—of bombs from the United States and Israel, and of their own government and its instruments of repression. It is a constant, unrelenting anxiety, with no clear end in sight. taken in Moftabad, Markazi, Iran by @symaag_

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7 months ago