Refugee Week 2025
Refugee Week (16-22 June) and World Refugee Day (20 June) celebrates the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary.
In most communities, the NHS is the largest local employer, and as such, plays a vital role in supporting the local community to thrive. Enabling all groups in the community to access work or in the case of refugees to rebuild their lives and continue in their chosen careers ensures better community integration and enables people to move from economic inactivity to employment.
Our recruiting refugees into the workforce webinar shares insights and experiences of supporting refugees into employment.
This blog from North West London ICB describes how a dedicated refugee employment programme is creating volunteering and job opportunities for refugees living in the local community.
Many organisations across the country provide specific support for refugee healthcare professionals including:
- Refugee and Asylum Seekers Centre for Healthcare Professionals Education (REACHE) is a free language and clinical training programme provided by NHS clinicians and academics for refugee and asylum-seeking doctors and nurses based in England.
- The Building Bridges programme for refugee health professionals supports refugee doctors and other health professionals to qualify and find jobs in the UK.
- The Resettlement of Overseas Doctors Programme (REPOD) helps doctors and other medical practitioners who come to the UK as refugees to transition into the NHS.
- Breaking Barriers offers several programmes including employment support, re-accreditation and language tuition.
- The Lincolnshire Refugee Doctor Project (LRDP) supports refugees who are medically qualified in their home country to achieve GMC registration, enabling them to continue their careers in the UK and support the local NHS workforce.
- Refugee Support, Training, Orientation, Recruitment and Education (RESTORE) is a structured programme for refugees with a nursing and midwifery background in their country of origin to become nurses and nurse associates.
