Welcome to Migrant Helpline

Since 2003 Migrant Helpline has been working in partnership with Kent Police as part of the Community Placements Programme. The placements are designed to fully immerse the Officer within an organisation dealing with what the police may consider a diverse, 'hard to reach' section of the community. More recently Migrant Helpline has been providing placements for Student Officers as part of the Community Placement Programme launched by Sussex Police in May 2006.

Over a period of four days, the probationers shadow members of the Operations team, the One Stop Services and Induction Centres in order to understand how the organisation works and how the Police service can work in partnership with Migrant Helpline and the community it serves.

"I went to Millbank [Induction Centre, Ashford] to see a dispersal, which was interesting because on the one hand it was almost like watching a school trip leave - all of the clients were so excited at the prospect of leaving for their new city but in the back of my mind was the question of what would happen to them later on. You hear stories about asylum seekers who have been here for a long time who contribute to the community but who are eventually removed. It made me wonder what would happen to those guys."
PC Joe Barr, Police Probationer

"I found the placement very interesting. Everyone at Migrant Helpline were so helpful... The most valuable part was being able to work so closely with the clients and listen to their stories. It made me realise that so many of the clients are pretty cautious of the Police in general and because of the experiences that they may have had with the Police in their own countries, some of them don’t really know what they think of us".
PC Jasmine Hare, Police Probationer.