In partnership with Waging Peace

Reception: 6-6.30pm

Event: 6.30-8pm

Does when or how you arrive in the UK matter when it comes to seeking sanctuary if you’ve fled persecution in your home country? What about the unavoidable circumstances of your birth, the passport you hold, your age, or the colour of your skin? Who is deserving of our protection, and who gets to decide?

These are the questions an expert panel will seek to answer during this event. Speakers will draw from their own personal experience at the hands of our asylum and immigration system, whether their relatives fled past persecution at the hands of Nazi Germany; or they themselves escaped ongoing genocidal violence in Darfur, Sudan. Speakers will also consider the legal frameworks underpinning our asylum and immigration systems, especially considering recent legislative changes under the Nationality and Borders Bill, and decisions to remove certain individuals to Rwanda.

The event falls during Refugee Week (20-26 June 2022), which takes as its theme ‘healing’ -#RefugeeWeek2022 #HealingTogether

This will be a hybrid event (both in person and online). 

Speakers:

Robin Lustig, former BBC presenter and journalist

Afaf Mohammed, representative of Massaleit community from Darfur, Sudan

Charlotte McLean, lawyer at Duncan Lewis Solicitors

Chair:

Barbara Warnock, Senior Curator and Head of Education at The Wiener Holocaust Library

Event guidelines for those joining online:

1. The Library will send you a Zoom link and joining instructions via email prior to the event. Please check your junk email folders.

2. Please try and join 5 minutes before the event start time and we will let you into the room (do try and bear with us if this takes a few minutes).

3. If you would like to ask a question during the event, please type your question into the chat function, and we will endeavour to answer as many questions as possible during the Q&A. Your webcam will not be seen during this event.

4. The event will be recorded for the Library’s YouTube channel and will be shared at a later date.