Horsham Friends hear ‘Refugee Tales’
‘A horrible experience, it messed me up mentally, physically, and emotionally.’
The Illegal Migration Act has made it even more pressing for the volunteer community to pull together, Horsham Friends heard last month.
Anna Pincus, co-founder of ‘Refugee Tales’ and director of Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group (GDWG), described how the controversial bill introduced in July ‘will create a permanent asylum backlog and acute suffering for many people that will be framed by limbo years of destitution’.
GDWG’s volunteer-visiting will be more necessary, and ‘international solidarity is crucial’, she said, at a talk on 14 August, hosted by Horsham Labour Party. The talk highlighted the work the organisation continues to do to humanise those seeking asylum and refuge within the UK.
Rooted in the work of GDWG, ‘Refugee Tales’ shares the tales of people held in immigration detention and those who work with them. Published last year, the organisation’s ‘Walking Inquiry’ brings together the voices and insights of people with lived experience of immigration detention. According to GWDG, the contributions ‘shine a powerful light on the daily realities of immigration detention, and its complex and enduring impacts’.
The inquiry revealed that people held in immigration detention are deeply damaged by the experience. One individual describes their eight months in Brook House as: ‘a horrible experience, it messed me up mentally, physically, and emotionally. You know, just because you don’t know what is happening day in and day out… I always contemplate suicide because I feel less of a human being… I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.’
Writing in the GDWG summer newsletter, Anna Pincus said: ‘If you are a child migrant arriving in the UK in the months ahead, if you are a victim of modern slavery or someone who has been trafficked to the UK and you reach our shores, your future in the UK will be bleak whatever your reason for seeking safety. There will be no access to asylum as we have known it.’
The criticisms echo many concerns raised by groups including Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network, and Britain Yearly Meeting.
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