## **Time to be Out** 

## **Trustees' Annual Report, 13th June 2025 -  12th June 2026** 

Charity Number 1183884 

Website: www.timetobeout.org.uk 

## **Names of the charity trustees** 

|Name of trustee|Role(if any)|Dates(if not for the wholeperiod)|
|---|---|---|
|William Roche|Chair||
|David Sylph|||
|Malcolm Wren|Treasurer and Charity<br>Commission contact||
|El Parnham||until 11th December 2025|
|Issam Ghariba|||
|Brian Robinson||until 9th April 2026|
|Diego García<br>Rodríguez|||
|Reema Aladwan||from 5th March 2026|
|Amjad Alnawash||from 5th March 2026|
|Neil Derrick||from 5th March 2026|
|Jane Davies||from 5th March 2026|



## **Constitution** 

Charitable Incorporated Organisation, dated 12th June 2019 

## **The objects of the charity as set out in its governing document:** 

TO PROMOTE SOCIAL INCLUSION FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT BY PREVENTING PEOPLE WHO ARE REFUGEES AND ASYLUM SEEKERS WHO IDENTIFY AS LGBT+ FROM BECOMING SOCIALLY EXCLUDED, TO RELIEVE THE NEEDS OF THOSE PEOPLE AND TO ASSIST THEM TO INTEGRATE INTO SOCIETY, PARTICULARLY BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY BY: 

- PROVIDING WORKSHOPS, ADVOCACY AND GENERAL SUPPORT 

- INCREASING AND CO-ORDINATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR MEMBERS OF 

- THE ABOVE COMMUNITIES TO ENGAGE WITH LOCAL COMMUNITIES 

- RAISING PUBLIC AWARENESS OF THE ISSUES AFFECTING REFUGEES AND ASYLUM SEEKERS WHO IDENTIFY AS LGBT+, BOTH GENERALLY AND IN RELATION TO THEIR SOCIAL EXCLUSION 



## **Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects.** 

We attempt to prevent the social exclusion of LGBT+ refugees and asylum seekers in the following ways: 

- Offering casework support so that people can successfully claim refugee status, allowing them to work and build a new life in the country 

- Providing befrienders, who, amongst other things, help people with practical matters (such as registering with a doctor or dentist) 

- Arranging social events, both in person and online, and fostering social contacts to break down isolation 

- Where necessary offering 1:1 English language tuition 

- Referring people to other agencies and appropriate sources of support (e.g. with housing) 

- Providing hardship funds in cases of emergency (e.g. when Home Office support is not available through delays and technical problems) 

- Giving talks and presentations to community groups about the special needs and circumstances of LGBT+ asylum seekers and refugees 

- Collaborating with other groups to put pressure on decision makers to develop policies that do not further stigmatise and isolate the people we are supporting 

## **Summary of the main activities and the impact of our work in 2025-26** 

## _The context_ 

Around the world, particularly in Africa and the Middle East, LGBT+ are still at risk from the state authorities, the local community and family members. Some of the people who escape persecution claim asylum in the UK on the grounds of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Unfortunately, the process of claiming asylum remains extremely challenging for these people. The generally hostile discourse around asylum seekers in the UK means that they increasingly feel unsafe while they are waiting for their claims to be processed. LGBT+ individuals have the extra burden of frequently having to share hotels or housing with homophobic and transphobic asylum seekers. Where we become aware of individuals at risk in such places, volunteers from Time to be Out lobby the relevant agencies to ensure people's safety. 

There is now increased political pressure to process asylum claims more quickly. In general, this is a welcome development, but it is a particular challenge for LGBT+ asylum seekers to find sources of support and evidence that they are living openly in the UK before they have their Home Office interview. Many claims are being refused because of these difficulties. This means that most of the cases Time to be Out are supporting have already been refused and are waiting for a Tribunal to hear their Appeal. In the end, the overall process is taking much longer as a result of the pressure to speed up the decision making. Time to be Out has lobbied the Home Office (via the MP for Central York) to improve the quality of decision making in LGBT+ cases. 



The Home Office has also introduced a new expectation that people who arrive in the UK legally (e.g. on study visas) will be refused if they did not apply for asylum as soon as they arrived in the UK. This has had a particularly negative effect on people from Pakistan who have claimed asylum on the grounds of their sexual orientation. Many of these people were only able to be open about their sexuality after settling in the UK. Many of them were 'outed' to their families while here and started to receive death threats (because of the concept of 'family honour'). However, because they had not claimed asylum on arrival in the country their asylum claims are usually now refused. They then have to go into the Appeals system. Volunteers from Time to be Out give evidence at their Tribunals, and their appeals are nearly always successful, but the delays put a great deal of pressure on our beneficiaries and our volunteers. 

The government has proposed new, more stringent legislation which is likely, if passed, to have an adverse impact on Time to be Out's clients. We have lobbied our MP about the importance of creating safe routes for asylum seekers and other matters. 

As with all UK charities, we have found that the general economic situation is causing funding difficulties. Our income fell in this financial year at the same time that demand for our services was rising. 

## _Casework and befriending_ 

Volunteers from Time to be Out are not lawyers and are not allowed to give legal advice. However, we were able to support asylum seekers as they prepared for their Home Office interviews and presented their own witness statements. On 33 occasions volunteers from Time to be Out were allowed to accompany asylum seekers to their substantive interviews. 

Large numbers of these applicants were successful but in many cases the applications were refused. In these cases people have only two weeks in which to submit an appeal, and increasingly people have no lawyers at this point. Our volunteers supported a dozen people as they submitted their appeals online. 

Volunteers from Time to be Out gave witness evidence at 9 Asylum Tribunals. 

Many people who are granted Leave to Remain lose access to Home Office financial support before they qualify for Universal Credit or before they can get a job. In these cases we have been able to provide hardship funds to bridge them over. 

Many of our beneficiaries have complex needs (e.g. they are not living in safe housing; their financial support does not arrive; they have serious mental health problems) and in these cases we do our best to signpost them to more specialist and larger agencies. 

A number of volunteers continue to act as online befrienders or help with English tuition. We have also developed a buddying system to encourage peer support online. 

_Social events_ 



Every month we hold an in-person social event in central Sheffield, with an average attendance of about 30 people per session. 

We also hold a weekly social event on Zoom on Sunday evenings, focused on peer support and interaction. LGBT+ asylum seekers from around the country are able to attend and catch up with each other's news. We are grateful to four of our beneficiaries who have volunteered to host these meetings. 

In December a number of LGBT+ asylum seekers travelled to York and were welcomed to lunch and a tour at York Minster. On 30th May we paid for about 30 people to attend the York Pride event. 

## _Organisation and running of the charity_ 

Time to be Out now calls on the expertise of a part-time administrator, who supplies services as and when required. 

The trustees have set up a number of working groups, in charge of the following areas: 

- finance (in charge, inter alia, of identifying and applying for grant funding) 

- wellbeing 

- media and communications (this group has worked particularly on updating the website) 

- the legal pathway 

## _Impact_ 

49 of the asylum seekers we have been supporting were granted Leave to Remain between June 13th 2025 and June 12th 2026. We hope that we have played a small part in allowing these 49 people to begin a new life in a safe environment. 

We now have a volunteer who specialises in helping people apply for jobs after they are granted Leave to Remain. This is vital to them building a new life in the country, which is central to the aims of the charity. 

It is difficult to quantify the impact of our social events and our befriending activities, but we can be confident that we are continuing to meet our objectives of breaking down social isolation and integrating people who claim asylum on the grounds of their sexual orientation or gender identity into wider British society. 



## **Plans and priorities for 2026-27** 

We plan to follow the progress of the new legislation in regard to asylum in the UK closely and lobby accordingly to ensure that the needs of LGBT+ claimants are considered and protected. 

We shall continue to identify and collaborate with partner organisations that do similar work supporting LGBT+ asylum seekers. 

We aim to build on recent success in applying for grant funding to cover our regular expenses. 

Since we are now supporting so many people whose claims have been refused we shall ensure that we are ready to give evidence where appropriate at their Asylum Tribunals.