Refugee Tales Latest News
Annual Report of the Independent Monitoring Board at Gatwick Immigration Removal Centre
IMB Report calls for detention time limit and shows deterioration in safety in Gatwick IRCs.
The Annual Report of the Independent Monitoring Board at Gatwick Immigration Removal Centre for reporting year 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2023 was released today and gives a shocking picture of 'increasingly febrile' centres where safety has deteriorated and violence has increased. The IMB describes people in detention 'struggling to understand their rights and how they can exercise them in the centres' and a 'lack of meaningful access to legal advice' for detained people. The IMB details 10% to 30% of detained people being detained for 10 weeks or more and one man detained for 436 days. The IMB writes that 'detention without a time limit is unfair and inhumane.'
The Report is published nearly a year after the publication of the 33 recommendations of the Brook House Public inquiry and notes many of the same failings laid bare in the Inquiry and mirrors many of its recommendations. It affirms what GDWG visitors and staff have encountered every day in the immigration removal centres, the situation described to us by detained people and the situation our Director, Anna Pincus, described to the Home Affairs Select Committee in May this year.
The IMB describes failings of healthcare in detention, the inadequacy of interpreter services, inadequate mental health support, an unfair complaints process, humiliating use of handcuffs to take detained people to hospital, vulnerable people being detained without sufficient analysis of their needs, increased lock-in times being detrimental to detained people, staff being aggressive and intimidating and despair over a lack of pathways to release.
The IMB calls for a time limit, the Public Inquiry into Brook House called for a time limit, and at GDWG we call for a time limit for immigration detention. It is time to reverse the deterioration in safety in our immigration removal centres and to introduce a time limit so that we are never again reading a report describing the harm of detention for all and an individual experiencing 436 days in immigration detention and the profound waste of life that represents.
Spring Newsletter
In our Spring Newsletter you will read about our hopes for our new research into use of interpreters, our hopes for our new EDI working group, you will meet our new Chair of Trustees and staff who are leading Refugee Tales and our post-detention work. You'll find joyful memories from time spent as guests of the Landmark Trust and as nominees at the Sheila McKechnie awards. Read about how it is to start out as a new visitor and find out what 30 Windows mean to us! We hope there is much to inspire you in this newsletter reflecting on our work in our thirtieth birthday year.
Home Affairs Select Committee
The Director of GDWG, Anna Pincus, contributed to a fact-finding session of the Home Affairs Select Committee in Westminster on 1 May alongside Kate Eves, former Chair of the Brook House Public Inquiry. Kate Eves was clear about the shortcomings of the Government response to the Inquiry Report and Anna described how detention is currently experienced as seen in the day to day work of the charity: 'For people on the ground, there is no discernible change. In fact, there are elements that have actually worsened in the way people are experiencing detention at present.' Anna described increased lock-in times, inadequate use of interpreters, failings of healthcare and implications for the government's planned increase in use of detention at a time when the Inquiry has already proven that safeguards are failing in their implementation. Anna was clear on the harm created by indefinite detention and highlighted alternative to detention pilot programmes. The Chair of the Committee, Dame Diana Johnson MP, thanked Anna and colleagues at GDWG for all the work they do. GDWG welcomes the interest and scrutiny of the Committee re lack of progress against the Inquiry recommendations.
To watch the full session, here is the link:
Strategic Plan
We are delighted to share our 5-Year Strategic Plan with you. Thanks to all the experts by experience, the staff team, volunteers and trustees who came together throughout 2023 in focus groups, meetings and walking conversations about where we are, where we wish to be and how we get there. Our Strategic Plan has four pillars: inspiration, strength, sustainability and equity. We look forward to taking next steps with you. Thank you for your support and thank you Tim Peters Design for working on the presentation of the Plan with us.
The Theme of Refugee Tales 2024
At the GDWG launch in January 2024, David Herd outlined the theme for this year:
'For many years now, for most of the years we have walked in fact, Refugee Tales has walked with a theme. The point of the theme has always been to give our walking and our talking and our story sharing some focus, to bring the different elements of our project together. The themes have varied but always the aim has been to capture some aspect of the project’s work. We’ve walked with bridges and voices; we’ve walked in solidarity and against borders. And each year we’ve invited speakers to tell us more about our theme. It has been a way of building the Refugee Tales conversation.
Our theme this year is Human Rights. As some people will remember we have taken Human Rights as our theme once before. The first year was 2018, which was the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Our purpose that year was to remind ourselves, and anybody else who was listening, that to detain people arbitrarily – as the UK does year after year – is not just wrong in every moral and political sense, but is fundamentally a breach of human rights. As Article 9 of the Universal Declaration states: ‘No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.’
Refugee Tales and Gatwick Detainees Welfare have always known that arbitrary detention – detention without charge, without process, without oversight, without limit – is a breach of human rights. We have also always known that abuses of human rights are a self-fulfilling prophecy: that the more a regime denies or abuses human rights, the more it refuses to acknowledge the basic humanity of those it abuses. Abuse generates abuse until denying human rights has become not an anomaly but a programme, a direct assault on the idea itself. We knew this and we warned against it, but unfortunately knowing and warning are not enough. And so what we have seen over the past four years in particular is an increasing hostility to human rights themselves. Both the Nationality and Borders Act and the so-called Illegal Migration Act have been deemed by the UNHCR to be in breach of the 1951 Refugee Convention, that cornerstone of international refugee protection that followed from the Universal Declaration. Nor is it just that recent UK legislation has been undermining human rights, but that such rights themselves, the idea of human rights, has been subject to abuse. One of the recent home secretaries, as you might remember, called human rights a ‘luxury belief’. It was a chilling statement and a deeply worrying indicator for the future.
So this year, once again, Refugee Tales’ theme is human rights. This is partly because they are under attack and in many ways that is reason enough. But there is another reason it is important to mention here. There is a possibility – and we are nothing if not eternally optimistic – that the chance will come before long for a change of law. There is an election coming and there may well be a change of government coming and with a change of government there is quite likely to be a new immigration bill. A great deal will be at stake in that bill, including detention, and there will be an opportunity for an amendment to at least end indefinite detention. Refugee Tales, as you know, calls for a future without detention, but we also recognise that a key step towards that future is an end, at least, to detention without limit. At which point, if there is an amendment, there may well be some voices that will want to create exemptions to the application of a time limit. Refugee Tales is clear about this. There can be no exemptions. An end to indefinite detention must be an end to indefinite detention for everybody. No exceptions. Human rights are human rights.
But what does it mean, you might ask – and if you’re not asking, I’m going to say anyway – to walk for human rights. The writer Paul Mason can help on this. In his book Clear Bright Future: A Radical Defence of the Human Being, Mason ends by saying what such a defence of the human looks like. As he says, defending the human and human rights,
Involves putting your body in a place where it can actually [defend the human] and having done so, to hold a tiny piece of liberated space long enough for other people to find it, populate it and live. The radical defence of the human being starts with you.
That’s what Refugee Tales does when it walks for human rights. It occupies, holds and liberates space. And then it walks and walks and waits for other people to catch up.'
Winter Newsletter
It is with great pleasure that we share the GDWG and Refugee Tales Winter Newsletter with you.
In the newsletter you will read about GDWG drop-in sessions in the Centres and news of the Brook House Public Inquiry Report. You'll find book reviews and stories of the ways we come together through exhibitions, meetings, walking, training, planning, visits to detention and the detention centre visits room and even, in this edition, through boxing!
On a detention death
It was with great sadness that we heard the news at the weekend of the death of a man in hospital who had been detained at Brook House. This is a deeply distressing time for people in Brook House and our thoughts are with all those who knew him and cared about him. We also think of all the people he would have known in the future. We think of the finality of this news and of the waste of his life.
We had no contact with the man who has died so we do not know his story. We wish we had known him. We are aware that for our community, receiving news of this kind can invoke personal losses and remind of visits made to desperate people in detention that are hard to bear in the remembering. We shall do all we can to offer support. For GDWG visitors, making a visit may feel an inadequate response when set against the enormity of detention distress. We wish our visitors to please know that visits are an expression of empathy that makes a tremendous difference through quiet work, patient conversations and in cherishing community. For our community of formerly detained people and those currently in Brook House, we are here for you. Thank you to everyone at GDWG for your ongoing support to detained people over the coming days and weeks.
The Home Office has announced an inquiry into the circumstances of his death. We do not know the detail of this, but we shall use our unique position to do everything we can to work for measures to be taken for this never to happen again.
Whilst we await the findings of the report into the tragic death, there are hundreds of people incarcerated in Brook House. I encourage you to write to your MP and ask them to meet with us to discuss the report of the Public Inquiry.
In remembrance.
And in solidarity.
Briefing Paper:
Experiences of women in immigration detention
GDWG was delighted to be one of the partner organisations alongside Justice First and Samphire working with Dr Lucy Williams on a Briefing Paper focusing on the experience of women in immigration detention and created by women who are experts by experience or who work to support women who have been detained. The Paper, funded by the University of Kent, provides insight into women's experience of immigration detention and is intended to be a tool to support all those working to end detention. Our thanks to Dr Lucy Williams for this important work.
Annual Review 2022
Our Annual Review for 2022 celebrates the achievements of GDWG with 1,171 people supported during and after detention, 93% more people receiving phone cards than in the previous year, 131% more people receiving second-hand clothing packs, and the school talks programme reaching over 1,000 students.
Marie Dewson, Chair of Trustees for six years, writes her final report as she stands down from the Board, describing her work with GDWG as a 'privilege,' commending the 'professionalism and empathy' of the staff team and the 'wonderful support' of trustees while she has been in the role.
The Review 'Speaking Out' has a focus on the work of the GDWG self-advocacy group who launched the Walking Inquiry Report in Parliament in October 2022. Director, Anna Pincus, writes: 'We gain our greatest strength when experts by experience lead our call for change. Our thanks to them for tremendous courage and leadership.'
Read the 2022 Annual Review here.
In Response to the Brook House Public Inquiry Report
Commenting on the publication today of the Brook House Public Inquiry report, Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group (GDWG) Director, Anna Pincus, said:
“Today marks an important moment. This is the first Public Inquiry to examine immigration detention in the UK. GDWG has been a Core Participant and thanks the Deighton Pierce Glynn team for representing the charity and to all the witnesses who are experts by experience whose courage in giving evidence has been outstanding. For over 25 years, GDWG volunteer visitors have supported people in detention and witnessed their suffering. The report highlights that a culture of change must prevail and that in view of the impact of the indefinite nature of detention, ‘those detained at IRCs, including Brook House, should only be kept there for a maximum of 28 days.’[1]”
GDWG has emphasised the human costs of indefinite detention for many years and welcomes the Public Inquiry Report finding that ‘it was clear from the evidence of detained people, those who worked at Brook House, NGOs, and inspection and monitoring bodies that indefinite detention caused uncertainty, frustration and anxiety for detained people, with a negative impact on their health and wellbeing’[2] and ‘contributed to conditions where mistreatment could occur more easily.’[3] The Inquiry could not have made the case for an end to indefinite detention more strongly.
The Inquiry Report describes the prisonisation of detention, an ‘us and them’ toxic culture among staff with a lack of understanding of the power dynamic, a culture of impunity, inappropriate use of force on vulnerable detained people, attitudes of racism and toxic bravado and use of violence and violent language. In relation to safeguarding the report describes ‘a wholesale breakdown in the system of safeguards designed to protect vulnerable detained people.’[4] The catalogue of failings makes it imperative that the government does not persist with a planned increased use of detention following the Illegal Migration Act.
The Report states that the Home Office and G4S appeared reluctant to allow GDWG input and that this ‘would have benefited detained people and also those managing Brook House’.[5] Anna Pincus responded “The importance of the role of visitor groups around the UK cannot be underestimated. In the midst of the toxic culture described in the Report, GDWG visitors maintained an essential humanity, a humanity that was met with the threat of restricted access. Today visitor groups across the detention estate are as necessary as ever. Whilst Inquiry recommendations provide hope for the future, there are thousands of people being caused harm in detention today. The Inquiry report says that there is still a long way to go [6] and that ‘insufficient progress has been made to address culture within Brook House’ [7] identifying ‘a comprehensive range of failings by the Home Office’. [8] The government must commit to implementing the recommendations from the Brook House Inquiry. We await details of the steps that will be taken in response to each of the important recommendations. Abuses must end and must end now.”
GDWG Trustee Pious Keku, who is an expert by experience having been formerly detained at Brook House and other centres, said:
“Immigration detention feels like being in prison. The system makes you feel less than human. I know from direct experience how damaging it is to be held indefinitely. For many, the harm, the nightmares last long after release. When people come to the UK, they should be treated with dignity and respect, and their human rights upheld. We hope the Brook House Public Inquiry Report will mark a turning point in how people are treated in detention and in recognising the need for fundamental change.”
Notes to editors:
1. The Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group (GDWG) is a charity that supports people during and after detention at Brook House and Tinsley House, at Gatwick Airport. GDWG works to improve welfare and well-being of people in detention by offering friendship and support, and advocating for fair treatment. We continue to offer support after release.
2. GDWG has been working for over 25 years and has helped over 20,000 people during this time.
3. GDWG was a Core Participant in the Brook House Public Inquiry.
4. GDWG Director Anna Pincus and GDWG Visitor Jamie MacPherson gave evidence to the Public Inquiry. GDWG also submitted written evidence to the Inquiry.
5. GDWG supports a number of individuals who gave evidence to the Public Inquiry about their experiences of detention at Brook House.
For further information or to request an interview, please contact:
Anna Pincus - Director, GDWG - 07804903157
Laura Moffatt - Vice-Chair of Trustees, GDWG - 07974318137
Marie Dewson - Chair of Trustees, GDWG - 07801950306
[1] The Brook House Inquiry Report, Kate Eves, Chair of the Brook House Inquiry, September 2023, Volume 2, p.69, para 62
[2] Vol 2, p.64, para 55
[3] Vol 2, p.67, para 59
[4] Vol 2, p.86, para 41
[6] Vol 2, p.261, para 119
[7] Vol 2, p.257, para 114
[8] Vol 2, p.4, para 4.
Read our Newsletter: Summer 2023
At a time when the Illegal Migration Act hangs over us all with its statement of intent to increase detention and thereby increase separation and isolation, we share our Summer Newsletter with you which celebrates many connections. We have the connections made by the GDWG self-advocacy group and visitors, connections made by Refugee Tales walkers, connections with art, with wildlife (!), with schools and universities, with new Friends, within our locality and with new communities in the UK and overseas. Thank you to everyone who contributed to our newsletter, and we hope that in a time when the news for detained people and those seeking sanctuary is bleak, you will find inspiration in our newsletter accounts of the work of GDWG and reflections on the way we work and walk together with hope.
Book now to attend our evening events on the Walk of 2023!
People who have booked to walk on the day of any event don't need to book an evening ticket, but if you are not walking, please book your place on Eventbrite.
The start time is 7pm for our evening events and tickets are FREE or by donation so no-one is excluded from attending on grounds of the cost. Thanks for spreading news that booking is now open for our evening events in July. See you there!
Our Refugee Tales Walking Inquiry Exhibition is on Tour!
Our thanks to the University of Kent and Canterbury Cathedral for being generous hosts for us to display the Refugee Tales Walking Inquiry Exhibition. We'll soon be on our way to the University of Manchester... the next destination in our Exhibition tour!
The Walking Inquiry Exhibition will be exhibited in the Samuel Alexander building ‘Glass Corridor’ space at the University of Manchester, and available to view between 24-28 April 2023, when the building is open. In addition, there will be an evening event on 25th April in the Samuel Alexander Building (lecture theatre SLG.16) from 4pm to 6pm. This roundtable will include contributions from researchers at the University of Manchester (History - Prof Ana Carden Coyne, the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute - Phoebe Shambaugh, and Drama - Dr Ali Jeffers) and a discussion about the Walking Inquiry with a screening of a film by Ridy Wasolua and David Herd in conversation with people with lived experience of detention.
Refugee Tales launches findings of Walking Inquiry into Immigration Detention – 19 July 2022
Jackie Morris - Hare and Moon
On 19 July, Refugee Tales launches the findings from our unique Walking Inquiry into Immigration Detention.
Initiated in September 2020, the Walking Inquiry into Immigration Detention is designed to complement the current Public Inquiry into mistreatment at Brook House immigration removal centre.
Drawing on the solidarity of the Refugee Tales community, the Walking Inquiry is grounded in the lived experiences of people who have been detained, and the insights of volunteer visitors who visit people in immigration detention.
Our findings have been co-created by our walking community, with over 100 people taking part. We invited contributions and responses in many forms, such as testimony, art, letters, video and poetry. Through walking, talking and thinking together, we considered the questions:
What is it like to be detained?
How are people detained? What are the systems and structures of detention?
What are the long-term impacts of detention?
Why are people who have experienced detention not heard?
How does detention damage society?
What is our response?
The contributions shine a light on the daily realities and complex and enduring impacts of immigration detention in the UK. Overall, they paint a clear and disturbing picture: that immigration detention is dehumanising, a breach of human rights and its abuses are systemic.
Following publication of our findings in July 2022, we are actively publicising them to wider audiences. We want people of influence including politicians, policy-makers, faith leaders, the media and the wider public to engage with our findings and deepen their understanding of the nature and impacts of immigration detention. Our work to raise awareness of the findings and recommendations is led by the Self-Advocacy Group of people with lived experience of detention.
To download our Walking Inquiry Report and Summary of Findings, visit our Walking Inquiry webpage.
If you have any questions about the Walking Inquiry, please contact us.
Online Art Auction
& Arundel Museum Showcase Exhibition
May 2022
Jackie Morris - Hare and Moon
GDWG is holding an online art auction in May with a showcase art exhibition in Arundel Museum from 1st to 7th May. The auction and exhibition include works by well renowned artists Jackie Morris and Anita Klein alongside local Arundel and Sussex artists.
GDWG Director, Anna Pincus, said 'the auction and exhibition have something for everyone and feature a huge range of styles. When we put out a call for artists to donate work to the auction, we never imagined the overwhelming generosity that we encountered.'
The exhibition includes Japanese calligraphy and even an opportunity to try out Japanese calligraphy through attending a calligraphy lesson. Large golden prints form part of the exhibition from 'The Lost Words' by Jackie Morris. There are ceramics including a blue pottery teapot by Nik Blackwell, there is a signed catalogue by Grayson Perry. Abstract art by Frances Blane sits alongside hyperreal art with images of Brighton by Kabe Wilson. There are landscapes of local interest, flowers, portraits, pictures of animals, an etching, oil paintings, watercolours, miniatures, sculptures and much more packed into the museum. The exhibition includes beautiful framed photographs from Cornwall by Joe Cornish and the Lake District by Rosamund and John Macfarlane and visitors to the auction and exhibition will be intrigued to discover a Mystery Box!
The charity art exhibition opens to the public on 1st May at 10am and runs in Arundel Museum until 7th May at 4pm.
The online auction runs from 10am on 1st May to midnight on 31st May.
The link to the online art auction is HERE and can also be found on the www.gdwg.org.uk website.
Calling all artists
We are planning an ONLINE CHARITY ART AUCTION in May 2022.
The auction will raise funds for GDWG and Refugee Tales.
credit: Ian Henderson
Can you help?
If so, please write to anna@gdwg.org.uk
We have drop-off places for donated art work in Crawley and Surbiton or you may wish to send your art-work direct to the highest bidder at the end of May.
We plan a showcase of some of the framed art in the auction in an ART EXHIBITION at Arundel Museum in the first week of May from 1st to 7th May.
Save the dates!
Thank you for your support.
Little Amal & Refugee Tales in Canterbury on 21 October
The Walk: Thu 21 Oct, 12pm 1hr 30 mins,
Canterbury Cathedral to the University of Kent Campus.
In 2021 from the Syria-Turkey border all the way to the UK, The Walk will bring together celebrated artists, major cultural institutions, community groups and humanitarian organisations to create one of the most innovative and adventurous public artworks ever attempted. Welcome Little Amal
Refugee Tales: Thu 21 Oct, 7pm
Gulbenkian Theatre
To welcome Little Amal to Canterbury and the University of Kent, The Refugee Tales project will present an evening of tales and music. Founded in 2015, Refugee Tales shares the stories of people who have experienced indefinite immigration detention in the UK in order to call for detention to end. Hosted by Niamh Cusack, the evening will feature readings by Patience Agbabi, AJ and Bidisha, and music by Liran Donin’s 1000 Boats. As a gift to help her on her journey, the project will present Amal with a copy of Refugee Tales.
Tickets: £10, Student £5 – Book Here
LITTLE AMAL
A 3.5 metre tall puppet of a young refugee girl called Little Amal is walking 8,000km from the Syrian Turkish border to the UK highlighting the plight of displaced children and transcending borders with a carnival of arts events wherever she goes.
We shall be welcoming Little Amal in a Refugee Tales event at The Gulbenkian Theatre, University of Kent, Canterbury on Thursday 21st October 2021. There will be music to greet Little Amal and readings of tales and we'll present her with a giant sized copy of Refugee Tales too! Please come and give a Refugee Tales welcome to the extraordinary puppet.
Read about the Kent welcome here and we'll let you know as soon as booking opens. Amal is a wonderful beacon enabling communities to express welcome. Tickets will fly! Please save the date.
Details of this event are HERE
Discover more about Amal and her journey HERE
Refugee Tales - Small Wonder Festival
26 September 2021 at 12 noon
Bidisha and Rachel Seiffert will be reading from Refugee Tales Vol. IV at the Small Wonder Festival, Charleston, East Sussex
More details and tickets are available HERE
Please join us to celebrate the launch of Refugee Tales IV on Wednesday 28th July at 7 pm
This online event is taking place in collaboration with the London Review Bookshop with guests including Shami Chakrabarti, Rachel Seiffert and Kamila Shamsie.
To mark the publication of Refugee Tales IV, which coincides with the 70th Anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention, the event will feature several contributors to the project: Pious, a volunteer worker with the Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group who will speak from lived experience of detention, and writers Shami Chakrabarti, Rachel Seiffert and Kamila Shamsie. Combining a panel discussion with readings from the new volume, the event will consider what the stories shared in Refugee Tales tell us about attitudes towards people seeking asylum and reflect on how far current practices have departed from the aspirations of the Convention. The event will be chaired by Professor David Herd, the volume’s co-editor.
To book your tickets, please follow this link https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/refugee-tales-tickets-162270717083
NEW BOOK - Refugee Tales Volume IV
Pre-order now!
We wish that it wasn't necessary for us to share the tales of people who have been detained, but detention persists so we have to keep walking and we have to keep sharing tales! Boxes of Refugee Tales Volume IV arrived in our office on Friday. The books are beautiful! Big thank you to Comma Press. Volume IV is orange in colour with a globe on the cover reflecting the fact that the tales contained in the volume include detention stories from elsewhere in the world. We shall be selling Volume IV in Canterbury next weekend but if you are not walking with us in Canterbury, here is the link to pre-order your copy from Comma Press. Please share this news with your friends, your contacts and your family.
Refugee Week 2021
14 -21 June
Canterbury Cathedral is hosting a series of events for Refugee Week. The first of these will be daily online screenings of ‘Canterbury Cathedral presents Refugee Tales.’ Filmed at iconic and hidden locations within the Cathedral Precincts, these are films of real life refugee stories as told to famous writers as part of the Refugee Tales series.
On Saturday 19 June, the Cathedral is holding ‘Canterbury Cathedral’s Refugee Week Conference’
This half-day event is on the theme of ‘We Cannot Walk Alone.’
The morning talk will chaired by Bishop Rose Hudson-Wilson with a panel including:
• David Herd, Refugee Tales
• Lord Dubs
• A youth ambassador from Kent Refugee Action Network
• A representative from Good Chance Theatre’s The Walk with Amal.
Book a free tickets here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/refugee-week-2021-we-cannot-walk-alone-tickets-153951285439
AND
‘Canterbury Cathedral presents Refugee Tales’
Canterbury Cathedral is working with Refugee Tales to share five specially made films of readings from the Refugee Tales volumes.
The tales broadcast from Monday to Friday during Refugee Week are:
• The Prologue, David Herd
• The Foster Child’s Tale as told by ‘AJ.’
• The Arriver’s Tale as told to Abdulrazak Gurnah
• The Refugee’s Tale as told to Patience Agbabi
• The Stowaway’s Tale as told to Amy Sackville
One film will be loaded each day during the Refugee Week on the Cathedral YouTube page: HERE
UoP Global Week 2021
Tales of Refuge
Mon, 15 March 2021
18:00 – 19:30 GMT
Join us for a round-table discussion with refugees and representatives of charities who support those seeking sanctuary.
This Round Table event brings together speakers from organisations supporting asylum seekers and refugees as well as those with lived experience to talk about the stark realities of life as an asylum seeker/ refugee as well as the traumatic effects this has on life long after. There will be plenty of time for audience participation. The organisations represented are: Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group, organisers of the Refugee Tales outreach project, Friends without Borders, a Portsmouth-based charity supporting those seeking asylum.
Details and booking here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tales-of-refuge-tickets-140811814929
Izzy Sutherland is running a half marathon.
We can't speak highly enough of how generous Izzy is and how amazing she has been in maintaining her commitment to our work even after finishing as an employee.
Now she's chosen to do a run in support of our parent organisation GDWG (and so us). It would be wonderful if you could help her to give some support via her Justgiving page.
Here is the link to her page, please support Izzy if you can and share her page with others. We're so grateful if you can support Izzy as the funds she raises will help us continue our work with people during and after detention.
Viet Nguyen
& Refugee Tales
Refugee Writings.
Sat 26 Dec 2020
Writing about Home
Where is ‘home’ for people forced out of their homelands? Can home be found in a place of refuge – if a place of refuge can be found?
Literature Cambridge are running regular online study sessions on literature. They are holding a session on refugee writings, using some Refugee Tales plus Viet Nguyen's The Refugees.
Literature Cambridge suggests: "If you want to read something really worthwhile over the Christmas period, we recommend the powerful stories and testimonies in Refugee Tales (UK, 3 vols.) and Viet Nguyen's stories, The Refugees (US). Nguyen was a child refugee from Viet Nam in the 1970s - one of the 'Boat People' after the American-Vietnamese War."
The Online Study Session on Refugee Writings will take place by zoom on Boxing Day, Saturday 26 December, at 6 pm UK time. Half of the earnings from this session will be donated to two UK charities. (1) Freedom from Torture, a London charity which supports refugees and others who have experienced severe mistreatment in their homelands. https://www.freedomfromtorture.org/
and (2) Refugee Tales which supports refugees and calls for an end to indefinite immigration detention in the UK. https://www.refugeetales.org/
Bookings:
https://www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/.../refugee-writings
#refugeewritings #studyliterature #literaturecambridge #vietnguyen #refugeetales
Thursday 10 December 2020, 7.30pm - 9.00pm
Meet the activists – online
Join an online conversation and meet people working locally to end immigration detention.
A part of People’s History Museum’s programme exploring migration, co-created by a Community Programme Team made up of people whose lives have been shaped by migration.
Our Anna Pincus of GDWG and Refugee Tales will be taking part.
https://phm.org.uk/events/meet-the-activists-online/
Christmas Cards!
Our thanks to Ruby Wright for the amazing Christmas Card she has designed for GDWG and Refugee Tales this year.
On sale from November, you’ll recognise the colour of the card as the beautiful Refugee Tales blue on our t-shirts!
The card shows a community of walkers in silhouette with a delicate Christmas star on top of a tree. Some walkers are talking together, and all are walking in one direction with a hopeful sense of purpose.
Cards are just £4.99 for a pack of 10 plus postage but can be collected from the GDWG office any Wednesday from early November. Please let Josie (josie@gdwg.org.uk) know how many packs to reserve for you and we’ll send you payment details with postage costs nearer collection time. Thanks to everyone who sends our cards as every card we sell is an opportunity to increase awareness of GDWG and Refugee Tales and to raise funds for future work.
Ruby is an illustrator with a particular interest in picture books. She’s worked for BBC Radio 4, Arts Council England and The Architecture Foundation and had radio pieces broadcast in the UK and overseas too. She’s currently Artist in Residence at UCL’s Plastic Waste Innovation Hub and can often be seen sketch book in hand walking with us at Refugee Tales. Her website is: www.rubywright.com
Long-time supporter of Refugee Tales and GDWG, Kamila Shamsie, has written an important piece in The Guardian Review calling for the UK to return to a place of welcome .
Kamila writes, 'The real problem wasn’t the “indefinite”; it was the “detention” itself. Indefinite leave to remain' really should be the only use of 'indefinite' in our immigration system.'
This year Refugee Tales called for a future without immigration detention and we believe life after Covid-19 must be that future. The Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated more than ever that detention is unnecessary, with large numbers of people released over the course of the pandemic. We must not return to the old normal, we must create a new normal.
In her piece Kamila describes how detention is systemic racism and ties in with the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement. She talks powerfully about how the hostile environment is designed to make people feel unwanted. 'That humiliation and grinding down is the primary purpose of a system of detention that is costly, inefficient and unjust...it exists to send a message: if you’re seeking to escape an unbearable life, don’t come here; we’ll treat you terribly. If you are already here, leave.'
This is an important piece, urging us to wake up 'and in our wakened state dream an even bolder dream than the one of welcome centres in the far-from-unproblematic 1970s. It is time to dream of justice and humanity.'
The Walk of 2020
From 3 to 5 July walkers from all over the world came together to call for a future without immigration detention. Messages poured in to us with images of bridges taken by walkers showing connection across the globe and calling for change. David Herd introduced the three days saying we were creating bridges and crossing borders.
Thank you to everyone who walked in solidarity 'for the better imagined' (in the words of Ali Smith). Here is a small collection of the many images we received from around the world:
Adrienn & Turlough walking in solidarity. Rotorua & Tongariro National Park, New Zealand
Ben: old packhorse bridge River Washburn north of Otley, Yorkshire, UK
Ben Elton in Western Australia
Bridging the Gap at Thangavel Date Plantation, nr. Nagpur, Maharashtra, India
Cambie Bridge, Vancouver, Canada
Cathrine - walk in Norway for Refugee Tales
Claudia Gualtieri walking in solidarity. Roman bridge in Cesena, Italy
Faversham, Kent, UK
Graca walking in solidarity in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Jennie Mardel and friends Canberra, Australia
John at Africa's Great Rift Valley, Kenya
London solidarity walk.
Melanie on Dreiländerbrücke (Three Countries Bridge): Germany, France, Switzerland
Sameena & Mike, Wellington, New Zealand
Northern Irish Group walking in solidarity
Paulina in solidarity at the Saint Roch Bridge, Poznan, Poland
Rob and Christy Fawcett: bridge Lake Redman, Pennsylvania, USA
Robert Knight walking in solidarity: Massachusetts, USA
Seminar at TU Chemnitz, Germany. 'Reading Refugee Tales'.
Bridge West 125th Street: solidarity walk in Harlem, New York City, USA.
Solidarity from Makena in San Francisco, USA
Guy Millais in solidarity from Williamstown, Victoria, Australia
Didi - Karl in Valsertal, Tirol, Austria
Maureen at the Mourne River, Strabane, Ireland
Doelenbrug, Steenschuur, Leiden, Netherlands
Barker's Creek, Victoria, Australia
Marl and Anthony, Renningen, Germany
Joe Davis, Cầu Nhật Tân, Hanoi, Vietnam
Amanda in solidarity at the European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium
Michael Plastow, 横浜ベイブリッジ Yokohama Bay Bridge, Japan
Rajeeva at the Verrazano Bridge, Maryland, USA
Three bridges at Ballydehob, West Cork, Ireland
Steve Collis walking in Delta BC, Canada
Ana Campbell at Sugar Loaf, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Four supporters, Ballydehob, Ireland
Hans walking in Rottne, Sweden
Kate at Northumberland coast, near Embleton
Christine, Tony, Len and Gill in Partaloa, Almeria, Spain
Laura and friends in solidarity Land's End, Cornwall, UK
From Marsha at Cape Town, South Africa
Janice Perry, South Slang Bridge, Ferrisburgh, Vermont, USA
Liede Bridge, Guangzhou
Pilgrambrücke, Wien, Austria - Ursula Machold
Liran Donin and 1000 Boats.
The musicians performing for Refugee Tales at our first evening event on 3 July.
Book your free ticket here. Liran is premiering some new material written for Refugee Tales alongside music from his recent release 8 songs. His music balances jazz, folk and music of sub-saharan Africa alongside that of his roots in Tel Aviv. Liran is offering Refugee Tales walkers and supporters a special offer.
His music is available on bandcamp:
8 Songs | Liran Donin 8 Songs by Liran Donin, released 01 June 2018 1. I Can See Tarifa 2. The Story of Annette and Morris 3. Alma Sophia 4. Tel Aviv to Ramallah 5. Paws 6. Noam, Sea and Sand 7. Gal and Osh 8. New Beginnings 9. FREE lirandonin.bandcamp.com
Use the following codes:
tales20 = 20% off on anything tales
30 = 30% if you wish to buy the whole set – CD, Vinyl + HD download
All signed per request!
Anyone who is purchasing anything will receive an HD download album of the music played at our Refugee Tales event for free! The offer is available from today but shipping will take place after the event on 3rd July.
The Saffron Stitch is a business started by someone with lived experience of detention who writes: 'Without Refugee Tales and the GDWG from which it grew there would be no Saffron Stitch.' Take a look at the very beautiful website.
If you have to enter a shop or enclosed space, you may wish to buy a face mask as the government recommends. If you need to use public transport, you may be looking for a suitable face covering. Look no further!
Refugee Tales face masks are on sale with our logo on the fabric. They are beautiful quality with many other fabrics to choose from too. Masks have an outer 100% cotton layer and an inner layer of poplin used for NHS scrubs and face masks Oekotex approved.
The fabric is 97% cotton, 3% elastane, washable and reusable. What's more, 75p is donated to Refugee Tales and the work of GDWG with every Refugee Tales mask or other mask sold.
It is also possible to donate to Greg, one of our GDWG trustees who is a Birthday Ambassador packing masks for us and burning the midnight oil to do it after his day job too... Here's the link for your orders. Thank you for your support.
Refugee Tales Postcards
Whether you’re walking or staying at home, do send Refugee Tales postcards to friends, family, politicians … far and wide. Flick has made two postcards.
Each one combines a portrait she has made of someone involved in Refugee Tales and a poem (an excerpt of one) by David Herd. Email Flick and she will post a pack of 10 to you, first class, in time for you to send out from 3 July. Please get orders in as soon as possible to make sure they arrive in time. They’re free. Email Flick at flick@felicityallen.co.uk and don’t forget to include the address she should send them to! www.felicityallen.co.uk
Black Lives Matter : Refugee Tales Statement
Refugee Tales stands in solidarity with all fighting for justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Aubery and all who have lost their lives to police brutality.
Here in the UK, 37 people have lost their lives in immigration detention and a further 14 have died in prison under immigration powers, according to Inquest. See this report from Medical Justice in 2016 that found there is a lack of transparency and accountability around death in detention as there is no central or coordinated oversight and monitoring of deaths. In 1993 Joy Gardner was killed after a violent deportation attempt.
Five police officers raided her home to ‘detain and remove’ Joy and her 5 year old son. Three of the police officers were tried on manslaughter charges in 1995 and they were all acquitted. No one was charged for the death of Jimmy Mubenga, a man who died in 2010 after telling guards he couldn’t breathe while being restrained on a flight during an enforced removal.
Just last year Oscar Okwurime died whilst detained at Harmondsworth IRC, we are still awaiting the outcome of the investigation into his death. In 2017 BBC Panorama uncovered abuse at Brook House IRC, showing video footage of staff physically and verbally abusing people in detention. The Crown Prosecution Service considered an investigation carried out by Sussex police, and decided not to charge the abusive staff members. There is now an ongoing public inquiry into the abuse only after much legal pressure from the victims and their legal teams.
These incidents here, in the US and across the world are not isolated. They are a manifestation of systemic racism and state brutality. We continue to fight against these systems that oppress people of colour the world over. We cannot and will not be silent.
Refugee Tales Online #RTOnline
Refugee Tales Online promo video by Ridy, a film-maker with lived experience of detention who volunteers on the organising group of Refugee Tales.
Ridy asked people with lived experience of detention and those who walk with them to say three words that Refugee Tales meant to them. Watch their responses!
Refugee Tales online takes place from 3-5 July 2020 with talks, readings, music and tales. Register to attend www.refugeetales.org #RTOnline
Exploring ideas of home, migration, the free movement of people and languages, alongside PEN’s work with young refugee writers. The Society of Authors hosts an online event with Neel Mukherjee, David Herd and Kasonga. The event will include a short reading, followed by a panel discussion chaired by Hannah Trevarthen of English PEN including solidarity and why writers use their voice to speak out for those in detention, relationships between writing and human rights, the Refugee Tales walk and what writers and readers can do to call for an end to detention.
A partnership event between Society of Authors, Refugee Tales and English PEN – part of the SoA @ Home Festival.
Bridges photos!
Refugee Tales 2020 calls for a future without detention. It does this through a series of online events 3rd to 5th July with talks, readings, film, tales and music. As well as events there will be walking. Walking may be solitary or socially distanced according to government guidance at the time, but the nature of the walking - in solidarity - creates a connection around the world.
To demonstrate this connection and common intention we ask walkers, wherever they are, to take a photo of a bridge and share it with us. The bridge may be real or metaphorical. It may be famous or just an image that creates a link with what we are doing and the change we are calling for.
Please send your bridges to refugeetales@gdwg.org.uk and share reflections from your walk. We shall have a map on our website for people to register where they are walking in solidarity.
25 years of GWDG
We are recognising 25 years of GDWG friendship and support for people in immigration detention. Become a Friend of GDWG and help us mark the 25th birthday.
