The The VOICE Refugee Forum was founded in 1994 as The Voice Africa Forum by four refugees in a detention centre in Muhlhausen, Germany in order to aid resistance to the military dictatorship in Nigeria. The group pushed for the release of political prisoners and refugees.
The Voice was active in the self-organised refugee fight since 1997 to close the notorious refugee detention centres Tambach-Dietharz and Jena Forst in the eastern Germany.
During the G7 summit 1999 in Cologne activists of the Voice participated in the Caravan for the Rights of Refugees and Migrants 16-day hunger strike of refugees and the occupation of the Alliance '90/The Greens office in Cologne.
The forum has since become networked across Germany as well as in London, with offices organising individually. The groups remain refugee-lead and self-organised with an emphasis on fighting deportation and detention throughout the world.