This installation by the young, internationally-acclaimed Jerusalem-born Fast presents an original and often disturbing insight into the plight of asylum seekers and their struggle to be heard.
One film depicts an asylum seeker from a dystopian Britain seeking asylum in Africa. The preceding two films show, respectively, a dramatised interview between the artist and an asylum seeker in London, and a brief piece of original footage.
The films are five, 10 and 30 minutes in…
On 14 June, Ayrshire Friends of Refugees held a gathering outside the Dungavel Detention Centre. Isolated in the rolling green Lanarkshire countryside, near to the picturesque market town of Strathaven, Dungavel houses people whilst they await deportation. The small crowd had travelled some miles, coming together to demonstrate ongoing solidarity with the inmates.
Several informal contributions were made, touching on the importance of maintaining support for refugee communities,…
This is a book about the way refugee academics have been either rescued by their British counterparts or received and treated on seeking asylum in the UK. In particular it focuses on the work of the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA) – originally formed in 1933 as the Academic Assistance Council.
The book is divided into three parts: “Then”, about the rescue of expelled or threatened (mainly Jewish) academics from Nazi Germany and neighbouring countries; “Until”, a short…
At the beginning of 2008, Coventry Peace House launched a campaign to highlight the plight of stateless people. This book – launched in Refugee Week 2008 – is the result of collaboration by workers on the campaign. Both campaign and book raise the issue of statelessness in Britain and globally, providing a valuable contribution to the wider issue of the sufferings of asylum seekers and the various ways in which this is addressed in Britain today.
The book begins by giving an overview…
The Unity Centre is tiny – the opposite of a Tardis – a corner shop space crammed with people, computers, filing systems, sofas, chocolates and a whole lot more. It is unique because of how it is organised, what it does and how it came into being. Unity Centre volunteers Jane and Phill helped me to understand more.
The Centre’s origins can be traced back to the 2005 anti-G8 mobilisation in Scotland, where one of the focuses was the Dungavel detention centre and the No Borders campaign…
On July 15th, Zimbabwean trade unionist Mike Sozinyu spoke to a meeting hosted by Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees, at the Scottish TUC offices in the city.
Mike is part of the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions and is active in building a trade union movement independent of the Zimbabwean government. He stressed the importance of hearing voices of solidarity from British workers, as these could not be ignored by Mugabe, who dismisses criticism from the UK government as mere…
President Bush wants the Iraqi government to seal a “status of forces”agreement cementing the US military presence in Iraq without seeking the approval of the Iraqi parliament, unsurprising given that a majority of members of the Iraqi parliament have written to the US congress rejecting a long-term security deal with Washington if it is not linked to a requirement that US forces leave.
Deportations increaseForced deportations of Iraqi asylum seekers are accelerating under Brown; 60…
This picture by Milein Cosman, Flight, shows her concern for peace. The refugee: the universal victim; her uptilted chin shows the determination to overcome her plight and to retain dignity. This drawing was chosen by the artist for Peace News, coinciding with Refugee Week. She herself came to England in 1939 from Germany.
There is a chance to see the works of one of our best emigre painters, exhibited at Burgh House, London (until 29 June). They show two things, firstly this is what…
In mid-October, the United Nations reported that 2,000 Iraqis flee their homes every day. 2.2 million are refugees in their own country, while more than 2.2m have fled to neighbouring countries. (1m were displaced prior to the 2003 invasion.)
4m refugees?In Syria, the 1.2m Iraqi refugees amount to 7% of the population; while in Jordan, 500,000 - 750,000 Iraqi refugees make up perhaps 10% of the population.
A comparable inflow in Britain…
There was a lot of good news to do with the Climate Camp, including the fact that BAA tried to get an injunction which could have applied to five million people anywhere near Heathrow, and instead got an order against three individuals - who were legally entitled to go to Climate Camp because it was outside the area described in the order!
On 5 August, 26 detainees escaped from Campsfield detention centre near Oxford. (At the time of going to press, 10 have still not been captured.) It…On Friday morning, Church bells awakened me, which I found strange in a Muslim country. After a little breakfast with my host Kathy Kelly, I was wide awake and raring to go.
The market was extremely crowded because the children will start school on Sunday. Stalls were full of rucksacks, notebooks and children's shoes.
For many Iraqi children, the decision to let them enter government schools means they can begin their education again, here in Jordan. Some of them were out of…
The one-day strategy conference, organised by Barbed Wire Britain (BWB), an Oxford based network advocating an end to refugee and migrant detention, was held on 14 October at London's Human Rights Action Centre (Amnesty International UK). The event was well attended, and morning plenary session heard activists speak strongly on recent successes, and lessons learned from the ongoing campaigns.
Topical areas included lessons learnt from detainees' struggles,the children in detention…
From late October to late November a bunch of activists from Norfolk, Suffolk and London are organising a month of actions and events in and around Charles Clarke's home town - Norwich.
Charles Clarke, Home Secretary, is the MP for Norwich South. He is responsible for both law and order, and for protecting our civil liberties, as enshrined in the Human Rights Act 1998. So what is the cheery man up to then?
Well he is taking liberties - detention without trial, the removal of…
As part of the week of G8 actions, more than 1000 people protested at Dungavel Detention Centre (officially Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre) on 5 July against the detention of asylum seekers, in a demonstration organised by groups including the
“It's not racist to impose limits on immigration.” This catch-all election slogan from the Conservative party can, conveniently, be interpreted in several ways. As can Labour's rather ambiguous “our country's borders protected”. What are they talking about?
Apart from being grammatically challenged, both manage to say everything and nothing in one vague non-sentence. So ask the questions: why do we need to impose limits on immigration and who do our borders need protecting from…
