1985: Scottish Refugee Council opens its doors in Edinburgh in response to the humanitarian crisis in Vietnam. We also provide advice and support to refugees from Chile. 

1992: Hundreds of Bosnians are evacuated to Scotland during the brutal war. We open a reception centre and lead a medical evacuation programme.   

1995: On our tenth anniversary, Nelson Mandela becomes our patron.

1999: We run reception centres in Glasgow to house Kosovans fleeing ethnic cleansing. We also offer advice and support to people fleeing war and persecution in Iraq and Rwanda.  

1999: The city of Glasgow signs up to the UK dispersal scheme to provide a home and support for people seeking asylum from all over the world – our office moves to the city too. 

2000: We hold events for Refugee Week, the world’s largest arts and culture festival celebrating the creativity of people seeking protection. This will later become known as Refugee Festival Scotland.  

2001: A tragic blow to integration in Glasgow, when Turkish Kurd Firsat Yildiz, 22, is fatally stabbed.   

2005: Known as the Glasgow Girls, a group of young women from Drumchapel High School start a national campaign in response to the detention of one of their school friends.   

2010: We open a support service to help unaccompanied children and young people cope with being apart from their families in a strange, new country.  

2014: We co-write the first New Scots Integration Strategy, which sets out Scotland's commitment to support people rebuilding their lives here.  

2015: Scotland welcomes thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing civil war under a UK-wide resettlement scheme. All 32 Scottish council areas sign up.   

2018: Asylum accommodation provider Serco announces they will evict hundreds of people from their homes by changing the locks. We lead a campaign to resist and overturn this policy.   

2020: Thousands of refugees living in Scotland win the right to vote in the country’s national and local elections.  

2020: During lockdown, asylum accommodation providers moved people into hotel rooms, prompting safety and welfare concerns. Months later, an asylum seeker is shot dead by the police after stabbing six people in a Glasgow hotel.  

2021: A protest in Kenmure Street, Glasgow, captures global attention after hundreds of locals successfully gather to block immigration enforcement from taking away two of their neighbours.  

2021: Scotland prepares to host Afghan refugees as part of a UK-wide evacuation plan, but only a handful of people are safely brought to the UK in the first year.  

2022: Thousands of people across Scotland sign up to host people displaced from Ukraine . More than 23,000 people arrive within the first 12 months of the conflict.  

2024: Our Refugee Support Service is rolled out across Scotland. In the year that follows, we help more than 7,800 people from 98 countries rebuild their lives in Scotland.