Last week, the UK Government announced its controversial Illegal Immigration Bill that seeks to overhaul the UK asylum system. Since its announcement, the Bill has been the subject of widespread criticism, with concerns raised about its compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The Bill targets asylum seekers arriving via ‘irregular routes’ such […]
This participatory interpretive dance experience will stay with me for a long time. The piece affected me in ways I am not yet aware of; there were many subtleties in the show that participants passively accepted during the performance but were laced with meaning. For example, participants were asked to practice whistling at the start, […]
This article was originally submitted on the 23rd March Written by Deniz Yalçın and Eliška Suchochlebová To mark United Nations (UN) Anti-Racism day, hundreds gathered in Glasgow on 19th March for a demonstration organised by Stand Up To Racism and supported by various social movement groups. People met at Kelvingrove Park on a sunny Saturday […]
Deborah Kayembe, a prominent human rights lawyer and activist who came to the UK as a refugee, has been elected unopposed as the University of Edinburgh’s 54th Rector. Assuming office on 1st March, Ms Kayembe’s will be an historic appointment as she becomes the University’s first Black Rector, and the third female Rector after her predecessors Ann […]
News of the Syrian conflict rears its head in the media again following Trump’s reckless withdrawal of troops and Turkey’s attack on the Kurds. It might seem to be easy for us in the UK to think that this is something no longer relevant to us. ISIS has been almost completely defeated, despite the recent […]
Last autumn, I thought a revolution was underway. For once social media and news broadcasts were relaying a wave of optimism: an unprecedented number of people gathered in Honduras, encouraged by a Facebook post, to head north together. In my surroundings, very few people seemed to have heard (or seen) the news about the Central […]
In 2019, the number of displaced people around the world will likely surpass 70 million, a figure that eclipses the population of the United Kingdom. A tragedy arguably unmatched in human history, this poses an existential challenge to humanitarian agencies and governments alike. While the civil conflict in Syria and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar grab […]
Almost exactly 80 years ago, on 2 December, a life-saving train settled in Harwich, England. The train brought with it approximately 200 orphans from Berlin, Germany whose orphanage had been destroyed in the Kristallnacht pogrom less than a month before. They were to be the first of around 9,000-10,000 unaccompanied Jewish children brought to the […]