Launched during Refugee Week 2007 and described by many organisations as a pioneering work and an outstanding achievement, ‘The New Londoners’ brought down some of the barriers between migrants and refugees and the host community.

We started out speaking to the British media as a medium to reaching out to the general public; by producing our own paper we became the media, the journalists and the story.

The first issue of the paper won the highly commended prize of the Mayor of London Press awards, in two categories: Best coverage in faith, black, Asian or minority ethnic press and Best visual/creative material.
Building on the success of the first issue of ‘The New Londoners’; a second and third issue was produced by members of the Media Group, together with a number of British journalists and volunteers.

The article was written by the award-winning writer Mark Haddon, following a visit to MRC where he met media group members and interviewed them. It resulted in raising an immense amount of awareness of the plight and experiences of some of the asylum seekers in the UK amongst the British public.

MRC and members of the media group were overwhelmed by the strong show of solidarity and the expressions of support, generosity and kindness of the British public.