Manchester Refugee Support Network
Our objectives
The Manchester Refugee Support Network (MRSN) is a grassroots, refugee-led organisation dedicated to supporting asylum seekers and refugees across Greater Manchester. Its core aim is to enable people forced to flee their homes to live with dignity and to build safe, happy, and productive lives in the UK. MRSN works to ensure that refugees and asylum seekers can access services and opportunities on an equal basis, helping to prevent poverty while empowering individuals to achieve their potential. Alongside practical support, the organisation also focuses on developing leadership, strengthening refugee-led community organisations, and raising awareness of asylum-related issues among the wider public.
MRSN primarily supports individual refugees and asylum seekers, including families and older people, but it also works closely with refugee community organisations, offering tailored guidance to help them grow and thrive. A distinctive feature of MRSN’s approach is its emphasis on lived experience: many of its staff, volunteers, and peer navigators have themselves experienced the asylum process, bringing empathy and authenticity to the work while fostering leadership within the community.
The network provides a wide range of services, from free immigration advice and advocacy to help with housing, benefits, healthcare, and education, through to drop-in sessions, wellbeing activities, and managed housing support for asylum seekers in hotels. MRSN also runs community development programmes, volunteer buddy schemes, and training for service providers, as well as coordinating cultural and educational events such as Refugee Week.
The impact of this work is significant. In a single year, MRSN’s advice services supported thousands of refugees, ensuring greater access to essential rights and opportunities. At the same time, its community development work has helped to build stronger, more resilient refugee-led organisations, develop leadership skills, and promote integration across Greater Manchester.
In all its activities, MRSN plays a vital role in dismantling the barriers faced by refugees and asylum seekers. By combining practical support with empowerment and advocacy, it not only helps people overcome immediate challenges but also builds the foundations for long-term dignity, equality, and participation in society.
Our activities
Here’s a full written version combining all of the advice and other services into one clear piece of text:
The Manchester Refugee Support Network (MRSN) provides a wide range of services designed to meet the practical, legal, and social needs of refugees and asylum seekers across Greater Manchester. At the heart of its work are its advice services. The General Advice Service offers drop-in and appointment-based support on welfare, housing, education, healthcare access, banking, and other essential matters, ensuring that people are able to navigate everyday challenges with confidence. For those who have recently been granted refugee status or humanitarian protection, the Refugee Integration Service provides tailored guidance during the critical “move-on” period, helping individuals secure housing, register for benefits, and access mainstream services. Alongside this, MRSN delivers regulated OISC Level 2 immigration advice, offering vital assistance with asylum applications, appeals, naturalisation, and documentation issues, both through drop-ins and targeted outreach in community settings and asylum accommodation.
Beyond advice, MRSN offers a wide spectrum of additional services that support long-term integration and community empowerment. Its community development programme provides training and practical support for refugee-led organisations, helping them grow in strength and sustainability. Through refugee awareness training, MRSN equips mainstream service providers with the knowledge needed to reduce barriers and improve access. The organisation also places a strong emphasis on wellbeing, running social, physical, and creative activities such as yoga, arts, and peer support groups, including targeted provision for people living in asylum hotels. Initiatives like the Peer Navigation scheme and the GREAT forum (Greater Manchester Refugees & Asylum Seekers Together) amplify the voices of those with lived experience, enabling them to lead and guide others.
MRSN also addresses urgent needs through emergency food provision and provides tailored support for groups with specific challenges, such as older refugees, who may face isolation and health difficulties. Its work extends further into supported housing services, helping asylum seekers transition into stable accommodation, and it leads community engagement efforts by coordinating cultural events such as Refugee Week, which celebrate resilience and highlight the contributions of refugees to Greater Manchester.
Together, these services form an integrated support network that not only helps people overcome immediate barriers but also empowers them to build new lives with dignity, confidence, and community belonging.