Refugee Tales: Volume IV [Paperback]

Seventy years after the adoption of the 1951 Refugee Convention, the UK is guilty of undermining the very principles of asylum, inhumanely detaining those seeking protection and ushering in sweeping changes that threaten to punish refugees at every turn.But the UK’s immigration system is not alone in committing such breaches of human rights. The fourth volume of Refugee Tales explores our present international environment, combining author re-tellings with first-hand accounts of individuals who have been detained across the world.As the coronavirus pandemic defies borders – leaving those who are detained even more vulnerable – this collection shares stories spanning Canada, Greece, Italy, Switzerland and the UK, and calls for international insistence on a future without detention.Featuring a prologue by Baroness Shami Chakrabarti. The plight of the world's refugees continues to hit the headlines, but rarely do we hear the personal stories of those who are trying to find a better and safer life on new shores. In these new tales, poets, novelists and writers have collaborated with people who have experienced detention, their stories appearing alongside first-hand accounts of people who themselves have been detained. These tales demonstrate ongoing reality of the UK’s ‘hostile environment’, as well as detention in Canada, Greece, Italy, and the USA. Each new story communicates the human costs of a system which fundamentally breaches human rights, and the need for urgent political change.