Please get in contact if you are interested in any of our publications and resources.
RHYTHMS OF REFUGE
A seven track CD written in support of the Stateless Campaign by stateless people themselves and supporters of the campaign.
THE ASYLUM GAME
An active card game to help people understand the Asylum Process; suitable for large groups.
STATELESS
A book outlining the issues around Statelessness.
I CAME HERE FOR SAFETY
The reality of detention and destitution for asylym seekers
You can read and print the whole book online for free (Acrobat required). Please share this with your friends and family!
‘Destitution: The state of being extremely poor and lacking the means to provide for oneself....’
- Oxford English Dictionary
Preface
This book was published in Refugee Week June 2006. The current asylum climate is therefore of that time but many of the issues are much more lasting than the latest Immigration Act.
We thank the scores of people who have contributed to this book including Andrea Mbarushimana for the artwork and Alan Paxton for much of the text. The contributors all care deeply about those caught up in the inhumane systems. Systems which mean that most people who have come here for safety are rejected, sometimes imprisoned and eventually made destitute.
Although many of the contributions are from people living in Coventry, this is a national book. It outlines the asylum system in Britain , using Home Office statistics and numerous research papers. It explores theories of why we have these systems and looks at the historical and global context of migration. It focuses particularly on detention and destitution and has articles, interviews and poems from those who are affected by those systems. It also looks at why we might try to avoid the issue and how we might bring change.
We dedicate this book to Soufiane Saadani, a destitute asylum seeker who hanged himself in the early hours of April 1st 2006 in the garden of Coventry night shelter.
We want the book to be read as widely as possible and so have not made a charge. However if you are able to contribute to the costs please send a donation— make cheques out to the Night Shelter, and send to Penny Walker at Coventry Peace House 311 Stoney Stanton Road, Coventry CV6 5DS. Thank you. (the shelter itself runs on donations).
Most of all we have written this book so that people can learn and understand what is happening to asylum seekers in Britain today and act on it in whatever positive way they can.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 License.