Refugee Action is an independent national charity founded in 1981 that provides advice and support to refugees and Asylum seekers who wish to live in the UK. Its chief executive is Sandy Buchan.

Its work has included the reception and settlement of refugees from Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

, Bosnia

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...

 and Kosovo

Kosovo

Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...

, as well as evacuees from Montserrat

Montserrat

Montserrat is a British overseas territory located in the Leeward Islands, part of the chain of islands called the Lesser Antilles in the West Indies. This island measures approximately long and wide, giving of coastline...

 after the Soufrière Hills volcano

Soufrière Hills

The Soufrière Hills volcano is an active complex stratovolcano with many lava domes forming its summit on the Caribbean island of Montserrat. After a long period of dormancy, it became active in 1995, and has continued to erupt ever since...

 eruption in 1995.

It works in association with the Refugee Council

Refugee Council

The Refugee Council is the United Kingdom's leading organisation working with refugees and asylum seekers. The organisation provides support and advice to refugees and asylum seekers, as well as support for other refugee and asylum seeker organisations...

 and Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

, and was among the groups that campaigned against section 55 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, later overturned in the courts, which denied financial and housing support to asylum seekers who failed to claim asylum within three days of arrival.

The Refugee Action is also a member organisation of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE)

European Council on Refugees and Exiles

The European Council on Refugees and Exiles is a pan-European network of refugee-assisting non-governmental organisations that promotes a humane and generous European asylum policy...

.