Celebrating Refugee Week – An interview with Harriet Walter, patron of West London Welcome

Harriet Walter, patron of West London Welcome

While thugs in Belfast are trying to burn foreigners out of their homes, one organisation in west London is making refugees welcome

West London Welcome is celebrating Refugee Week.

After last week’s events in Belfast, and anti-immigration protests elsewhere in the country, you would understand if they decided to keep their heads down, but not a bit of it. They are on a mission to debunk some of the nonsense which is talked about immigration and get a few salient facts across.

I spoke to one of the patrons of the Hammersmith based charity, the actress Harriet Walter.

The charity provides, as it says on the tin, a welcome for asylum seekers and refugees who arrive in this country. Harriet became involved at the outset through her friendship with West London Welcome’s founder Joanne MacInnes.

“Sometimes people can be a bit sanctimonious working in this sector. Jo is just a totally flexible human being who understands all human beings. She is humorous and articulate and has this positive spirit – she takes it on and attracts other people to take it on”.

Volunteers and clients of the West London Welcome centre in Hammersmith

“I just think: What would I do in their shoes?”

The Olivier award winning actress who began her career in the 1980s performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has most recently acted in well-known TV series such as The Crown, Downton Abbey, Killing Eve and Succession, is not too grand to roll her sleeves up.

In her time as patron she has done the washing up at the Hammersmith centre, taught English and made deliveries, but her main value as a well-known and well-connected celebrity is to bring in supporters.

Why did she decide to become patron?

Apart from knowing Jo and being drawn in by her dynamism, she thinks the work West London Welcome does is important because:

“I just believe in the dignity of human beings. As an actress I am interested in what makes people tick. With a bit of imagination, empathy and understanding you think: ‘What would I do in their shoes’?”

Receiving a west London welcome

“I meet people who have an attitude to life we could all learn from”

The countries which currently top the list from which people seek asylum here are Eritrea, Iran, Sudan and Afghanistan. These also reflect the top nationalities coming by small boat and the countries from which asylum seekers are most likely to receive refugee status.

Eritrea is recognised as having one of the world’s most repressive governments where human rights abuses and persecution is widespread – 87% asylum seekers are successful at the initial decision stage, and it is no accident that Eritrea was also the top country of origin for small boat arrivals in 2025. The people who come here from Eritrea are desperate not to return.

Meeting people who have fled such horrific circumstances and seeing how they have coped is something Harriet finds uplifting. The relationships with refugees are not a one-way trade:

“I meet people who have an attitude to life we could all learn from, and they’ve all left places where there are wars and human rights abuses”.

Harriet with fellow patron Phyllida Lloyd

“I recognise our responsibility for the things that are happening in the world that are causing them to leave their homes”

While the West London Welcome volunteers are giving refugees food and clothing, housing and legal advice and helping them learn English there is also a two-way trade in practical skills, she says:

“learning a bit of their languages and learning from them how to make certain dishes or certain crafts”.

Harriet finds the mix of cultures interesting and exciting rather than threatening:

“It doesn’t mean I like everybody. But I feel London is pretty integrated. I look around and see the bonus of living in a multiracial, multicultural society.

“I think it’s well known that if you live in London you are less likely to have strong racist views because you meet people and talk to them”.

Screenshot

Harriet helping out at the centre

“There is a huge responsibility not to distort the story”

Harriet also says she feels a degree of responsibility for the refugees’ situation.

“I recognise our responsibility for the things that are happening in the world that are causing them to leave their homes”.

We talked on the day after a bus and houses were set alight in Belfast, with gangs deliberately targeting anyone foreign following the stabbing of Stephen Ogilvie and the arrest of 30-year-old Hadi Alodid on a charge of attempted murder.

Alodid is a Sudanese man who entered the UK in 2023 and was granted refugee status the same year.

Harriet told me she was “totally bewildered” that immigration is so high up the political agenda when this country receives only 1% the world’s refugees.

Her anger is directed at the narrative delivered by the media, by press and politicians.

“There is a huge responsibility not to distort the story in the press – to get the statistics in proportion so people don’t get this melodramatic and unrepresentative presentation”.

Some facts …

West London Welcome has published a factsheet with a few alternate facts. For example:

• There is no such thing as an ‘illegal immigrant’ – ‘Under international law there is a right to seek asylum in any country. It is almost impossible for most people in the Global South to apply for visas to come here, and people must be physically in the UK to make a claim for asylum – they cannot claim from outside the UK’.
• Asylum seekers are not living well on benefits – ‘People seeking asylum are banned from working or receiving state benefits. They receive just £49.18/wk to cover all food, toiletries, clothes and travel’.
• They are not all men of military age who come here – ‘41% of claims were made by women and children’.
• We do not take in a disproportionate number of refugees – ‘Fewer than 1% of the world’s refugees live in the UK — most stay in neighbouring countries. France receives many more claims than Britain’.
• We are not being invaded by armies of immigrants arriving in small boats – ‘Net migration is falling. Small boat arrivals account for less than 5% of total migration to the UK’.

King Charles at West London Welcome when he was still Prince of Wales

“This divisive hate-filled non-debate will create division and destruction, and the Government will have to pick up the pieces”

Hostility to immigrants has become worse over the past ten years, says Harriet, and allowing or encouraging “this divisive hate-filled non-debate will create division and destruction, and the Government will have to pick up the pieces”.

She accepts that in any group of people there will be people who go on to do bad things, but in her opinion:

“You can’t turn them away at the door in case. You would be ruling out too many good people, too many deserving people because you’re suspicious of one or two”.

READ ALSO: Life as an asylum seeker in west London

West London Welcome is currently holding a recruitment drive in Chiswick for Welcome Circle members. The Welcome Circle is a group of key individuals giving us £2,000 or more a year to sustain and respond to the needs of refugees, asylum-seeking people and migrants at the centre.

‘Joining the Welcome Circle is a vital and energising way to give. Throughout the year, you’ll be invited to see our work first-hand, with direct access to our Leadership and Development Team to discuss the impact your support is having on specific projects or charity infrastructure.

‘You can get as involved with the scheme as much or as little as you like – and be as anonymous as you choose. Your donation goes a very long way in a small charity like ours’.

To find out more, contact West London Welcome’s Director, Joanne MacInnes: hello@westlondonwelcome.com.