Wet weather but a warm welcome at Glasgow’s Refuweegee – a photo-essay

Katherine Anne Rose spent months documenting the Scottish charity, which welcomes and supports forcibly displaced people with the help of the local community

Refuweegee is a play on the words “refugee” and “weegie”, affectionate slang for a Glaswegian. The charity was founded in December 2015 by Selina Hales, a Glasgow native who wanted to welcome displaced people in the city after seeing news coverage of Syrians escaping war and persecution and crossing into Europe. Glasgow has the largest refugee population in the UK outside London.

The scale and reach of charities such as Refuweegee have rapidly grown over the last few years, in part due to the rising numbers of asylum seekers but also because of the generosity and involvement of the local community. The charity has expanded to a network of more than 200 volunteers across Glasgow.

Refuweege merchandise with the charity’s slogan: ‘We’re all fae somewhere.’