Refugee Week 2023: This year is the 25th Anniversary for Refugee Week!

For this week, we are pleased to invite to the Seeing Asylum exhibition, which will be hosted at the Leeds Minster from Monday 19th June 2023 to Saturday 24th June 2023

(Leaflets regarding the dates and times for Tuesday 20th June – Saturday 24th June 2023 will be provided at the Monday Evening Event)

Please see the details below:

Monday 19th June 2023 – The Launch of the Seeing Asylum exhibition for Refugee Week

Time: 7pm – 9pm.

The launch event will begin with the speakers providing insightful information about the process of people seeking asylum, followed by the opening of the exhibition. Attendees will be provided with visual and audio resources relating to the exhibition, alongside having the opportunity to speak with the speakers throughout the event.

The Speakers for the Launch Event are:

The newly appointed Minister for Leeds Minster, Reverend Paul Maybury. A Criminologist, Maria De-Angelis, who has over 20 years’ experience within Criminology, who worked with the people seeking asylum, alongside the Faith and Racial Justice Lead for Leeds Church Institute, Dwayne Hutchinson.

Additional information and more guest speaker/s will be listed in the upcoming weeks.

Further details about the Exhibition:

The exhibitions highlight the true hidden stories of the women who have experienced their human rights being opposed, their possessions taken away from them and the actions they took to protest inhumane practices within the Immigration Removal Centre (IRC).

From hearing the true stories of people who have experience the journey of seeking asylum, it seems as though they can often be treated as criminals, as they are refused the rights to contact their family or friends. In addition to asylum seekers not having the option to contact their social networks, people are not allowed to visit IRCs, to see the practices that are happening inside.

Unfortunately, asylum seekers can end up having the negative experience of being within the detention centres due to their name being misspelt on their proof identification. Although this error may not be a fault of the asylum seekers, they can face the punishment of being held in an IRC until the error is amended. Whether they find asylum within the UK or they are sent back to their country of origin, dependent on the decisions made by the workers within the detention centre, asylum seekers await their fate in a hostile environment.

By shining a light on these issues and practices, this event hopes to allow people to understand the difficulties that asylum seekers can face and the social isolation from their families and friends.

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We look forward to seeing you there