Humanitarian support and the Illegal Migration Bill with Laura Kyrke-Smith and Abdul Amin

The UK in a Changing Europe Podcast

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4.3 • 105 Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2023

⏱️ 34 minutes

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Summary

Laura Kyrke-Smith, UK Executive Director of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Abdul Amin, PhD student and a refugee client of the IRC join Professor Anand Menon to discuss the work of the IRC, issues around humanitarian assistance and the effects of the Illegal Migration Bill. --- Laura Kyrke-Smith was appointed executive director of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in the UK in 2020. As executive director, Kyrke-Smith is responsible for delivering policy and practice change and increasing funding. She has been with IRC since 2015, when she joined as director of communications in Europe – her previous experience at Portland Communications working with philanthropic clients having bolstered her skills and connections in this area. Kryke-Smith has also worked in government and foreign affairs; she started her career in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as a policy analyst and speechwriter. --- Abdul Amin is a former UN Staff Member, with UNDP being his most recent employer. He is also a Chevening and a Warm Welcome Scholar. Since arriving in the UK in August 2021 with his family, Amin has undertaken an MA degree in Conflict, Security and Development at the University of Sussex last year, and is now pursuing a PhD in Politics at the University of Exeter. Amin was a refugee client of the International Rescue Committee.

Transcript

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0:00.0	So I'm delighted today to have two fantastic guests.
0:14.5	Laura Kirk Smith is the executive director of the International Rescue Committee.
0:18.3	With her, we have Abdul Amin. He's a PhD student and actually
0:23.6	was a refugee client of the International Rescue Committee. So welcome to both of you.
0:28.6	Thank you for having us.
0:30.6	Okay then Laura, to kick us off with a starter for 10 that I very much hope you can answer,
0:35.6	what is the International Rescue Committee?
0:44.8	So the International Rescue Committee was set up in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein.
0:49.0	So we are celebrating our 90th birthday, as it were, this year.
0:53.0	We work in 40 different countries worldwide.
0:57.0	We're a humanitarian agency, and we work with people who have been displaced by conflict and crisis or are caught up in conflict and crisis. And we
1:05.0	work with our clients, our refugee clients, to help them to survive and to recover and to go on to rebuild their lives.
1:13.6	We work with our refugee clients across five different outcome areas, the first of which is health, the second of which is safety,
1:21.6	the third of which is economic well-being and empowerment, the fourth of which is education and the fifth of which is power.
1:29.7	And as well as being present in some of the toughest crises in the world, from Syria to Afghanistan
1:35.7	to Yemen to Ukraine in the last year we've scaled up our programs dramatically in Ukraine.
1:41.6	We also work here in the UK. and we talk about working across the arc of
1:46.7	crisis. So we will work with people when they are first displaced by a conflict or crisis,
1:51.1	but we will also support them on their journeys if they do flee as refugees and then we
1:58.3	will support them as they resettle and integrate and build new lives in
2:02.6	places like the UK if they choose to do so.
2:05.9	So here in the UK we run programmes to support the integration of our refugee clients like
	...

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