Our Sanctuary Strategy and Action Plan sets out how Bristol City Council will work with partners to support sanctuary seekers.
Sanctuary seekers typically mean asylum seekers and refugees, but includes anyone who has experienced forced migration, whatever their circumstances or the route they have taken.
Each person brings their own background, culture, experience, challenges, skills, and aspirations. Their needs are complex, as many are undergoing a major life transition and adapting to a completely new environment. Given the opportunity, they will each find their own way to flourish and contribute to our city.
Sanctuary seekers in Bristol contribute significantly to the local economy and community. Many volunteer, find employment and start businesses, enriching the city's cultural fabric.
Initiatives include award-winning community organisations, businesses and social enterprises.
We work in partnership with many voluntary and community organisations and social enterprises.
For information on support available in Bristol, view the resources for refugees and asylum seekers on the Bristol City of Sanctuary website.
Landlords
If you're a landlord or know of any landlords that would be willing to work in partnership with the council and rent their homes to refugees, email us at refugee.resettlement.team@bristol.gov.uk. You can find out more about renting out your home on our rent your property to refugees in Bristol page.
Support
If you'd like to offer support for refugees, email bristolrefugeeteam@bristol.gov.uk. This inbox can get very busy, and you may not always get a reply. All offers are noted and reviewed, and you'll be contacted as and when your support is required. We're very grateful for all offers of support.
Donations
To offer donations, contact AidBoxCommunity or visit the AidBoxCommunity Facebook page. They can tell you which items they need.
Volunteering
You can find refugee volunteering opportunities on GOV.UK. You can also explore volunteering opportunities with local organsations in Bristol.
Bristol has been a place of sanctuary for hundreds of years. It has welcomed people from all over the world to find safety and rebuild lives and has a long history of welcoming communities in their hour of need.
For generations, some national policies, such as the ‘hostile environment' policy, have created division and made life harder for those seeking safety whilst creating division in existing communities.
This politics of division is not what we stand for, and we will not tolerate the pitting of one community against another for any purpose.
As a City of Sanctuary, we'll continue to support sanctuary seekers to build their lives in Bristol. Visit the Bristol City of Sanctuary website to learn more.
We've worked with national government to provide sanctuary to those fleeing conflict in Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine.
We've put in place government funded programmes to help people find a home, enter education, live full lives, and integrate with existing communities.
Bristol's sanctuary seekers, as of August 2025:
- 1,327 asylum seekers housed in Bristol with 972 of these people housed in 3 city hotels
- 56% of hotel residents are families and a quarter of these are children
- 600 Ukrainian guests residing in the city, with over 900 supported since 2022
- We've supported around 1,000 refugees through 3 national schemes since 2016, 486 through Afghan and ARAP, 403 through Vulnerable Persons and Children's Schemes and 111 via UK Resettlement
Bristol Resettlement Team
We provide support to refugee families assessed by the United Nations as particularly vulnerable and therefore eligible for formal resettlement.
Families have allocated Support Workers who:
- help them to readjust, orientate and understand UK systems and services
- give practical support with day-to-day living
- help them work towards independence by the end of the support period
Supported families live in private sector housing provided by landlords working in partnership with the team.
If you're a landlord we can help you to rent your property to refugees in Bristol.
The resettlement of refugees is organised through different government funded schemes and overseen by the Home Office.
We work with the Home Office to resettle refugees in Bristol through the following schemes:
Like other local authorities, Bristol provides time-limited support to some people with no recourse to public funds, in line with our statutory duties under the Children's Act and Care Act.
We work with partners in the voluntary and community sector, and with communities to welcome and support asylum seekers to meet basic needs, promote opportunity and build compassionate and resilient communities. There's more detail on this in our Sanctuary Strategy and Action Plan.
Funding for the resettlement of refugees comes from central government schemes and is overseen by the Home Office.
- The accommodation and services for asylum seekers in the hotels are provided by private contractors such as Clearsprings Ready Homes, funded by the Home Office.
- Local authorities receive additional funding under the Asylum Grant to provide some basic support to asylum seekers. To ensure sanctuary seekers can integrate with existing communities, it is essential to give them support so they can find jobs, learn about life and culture in the UK and access housing and health services. We are responsible for fulfilling the legal and statutory obligations set by national government.
We're proud to support Homeless Link's Support Don't Deport campaign.