Published: 08/10/03
Following a reception and Kurdish music and dance, there will be a performance of MIGRANT VOICES, the latest production from the Birmingham based Banner Theatre looking at the plight of refugees in Blair's Britain and exploring the reasons why they left their homelands in the first place. The evening will conclude with a discussion of the issues raised with members of the Refugee Project and the theatre group examining ideas to take the campaign forward. Since the campaign organised its seminar in December 2002, How UK Foreign Investment Creates Asylum Seekers, the climate for refugees has become much more hostile. The production represents a timely challenge to the rising intolerance from both the racist right and governments that unscrupulously play the ‘race card’ in attempts to win extra votes. The campaign itself aims to challenge some common myths about asylum and highlight the responsibility of UK interests in creating the conditions where people have to claim asylum. The campaign recognises the increasing urgency and complexity of the issues involved. In the UK today asylum seekers are now left destitute by new legislation withdrawing even subsistence support, and the world has become a more dangerous place in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq. Based on in-depth interviews with Kurdish refugees from Iraq and asylum seekers in Salford and with local residents, Migrant Voices combines live music and performance with video interviews and documentary material to show some of the harsh realities behind the media myths about asylum seekers. The play tells of desperate but resilient people who have fled their homes to escape torture and persecution but who have often found themselves the victims of racist abuse and intimidation, with highly insecure, dangerous and appallingly paid jobs and grossly substandard housing. The show makes a clear link between refugees in Britain and British intervention overseas and demonstrates powerfully that ‘they’ are often now over here because ‘we’ were once over there. MIGRANT VOICES focuses on the history of twentieth-century Kurdistan to show how British military involvement in Iraq began the twentieth-century onslaught on the Kurdish people, leading to their persecution by Saddam Hussein and the need to seek refuge in the UK. MIGRANT VOICES interweaves Middle Eastern and British musical traditions
to trace the causes of mass migration to the global instability that makes
people seek a better life away from home.
For more details:
New book out soon!Listen to the Refugee's StoryHow UK Foreign Investment Creates Refugees and Asylum Seekers Co-published by
Refugees and asylum seekers who manage to come to Britain are increasingly being demonised in the popular media as ‘welfare scroungers’, ‘illegal immigrants’ and ‘bogus applicants’ or as ‘criminals’ and ‘terrorists’. Such labels mask not only the immense contributions that migrants have long made to British culture and the economy, but also the reasons why they come here and why many long to return home but feel they cannot. The vast majority of refugees today are fleeing conflict or social or economic oppression (and the vast majority of the world's refugees live in the countries of Asia and Africa; less than 2% make it to Britain). In many cases, British companies, taxpayers and the government are directly and indirectly supporting the multitude of human rights abuses that accompany or follow British investment and policies abroad. Many of these ultimately force people to flee their homes and their countries. In recent years, the highest number of asylum seekers to Britain have come from Iraq, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Turkey, the Congo and the former Yugoslavia’. (Excerpt from Introduction to ‘Listen to the Refugee's Story’) The main articles in this book explore these issues and are based on presentations at a public seminar held in December 2002 organised by the IDC-Refugee Project with additional material from campaign supporters and activists. The book includes personal stories, poems and drawings from refugees and asylum seekers from various parts of the world, such as Kurds, Colombians, Afghans, Nigerians, Burmese and Somalis. Key questions are posed about trade and development policies, corporate accountability, the injustices of the present economic system and the implications of the war on terrorism. Position statements from the Baku Ceyhan Oil Pipeline Campaign and the Ilisu Dam Campaign illustrate the creation of refugees while other articles make the crucial link between environmental degradation and displacement of peoples around the world. The book constitutes an invaluable resource for all people who believe
that a ‘better world is possible’.
For information and orders contact: Sarah Sexton: The
Corner House, tel: 01258 47 37 95 e-mail: cornerhouse@gn.apc.org
or Estella Schmid, Peace in Kurdistan tel 020 7586 5892 e-mail: estella24@tiscali.co.uk
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