Unity in the Community - Refugee Celebration March

Unity in the Community is a refugee celebration march through Southampton on Sunday 12 July, starting at Southampton Central Library on Commercial Road and finishing at Mayflower Park. It's free to join, and the whole thing is about celebrating the courage and resilience of refugees in the city — past, present, and looking to the future.

The timing has a bit of weight to it: July 2026 marks 75 years since the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention. The march also looks back at Southampton's long tradition of welcome, from the Huguenots and the Basque children to those arriving from Afghanistan, Hong Kong, and Ukraine today, and the city's status as a City of Sanctuary. It's a way of acknowledging that the people who've found sanctuary here are part of the city's story, not just passing through.

There's a more immediate reason for it, too. The organisers, Southampton Stand Up To Racism, point out that over the last twelve months, people seeking sanctuary in Southampton have been subject to hate and protest. They describe the march as a public statement that 'Refugees are Welcome here' — a simple, direct way of putting that on the record in the streets.

On the day, participants gather at the library from 12:00pm for short speeches, and the march sets off at 12:30pm on a wheelchair-accessible route. You're invited to wear national costume and bring banners, placards, or musical instruments, so it's meant to be a colourful, noisy affair rather than a quiet procession. It's free to take part, and it runs from the library through to Mayflower Park.