Refugee Week 2023: 19-25:
Read more here: https://refugeeweek.org.uk/events
19 June 2023 6-8pm London: Migrant Voice: London film screening: “MATAR” and “AYMAN”
To mark Refugee Week, Migrant Voice and the University of Westminster are hosting an evening of award-winning film and discussion on 19 June at the University’s Regent Street campus. We will screen two powerful short films, MATAR and AYMAN, followed by a panel discussion and Q&A.
20 June 2023 5-7pm Manchester: WAST: Refugee Week: Women Asylum Seekers Together Event
Women Asylum Seekers Together invite you to celebrate Refugee Week 2023 and the theme of compassion By Women Asylum Seekers Together (WAST)
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/refugee-week-women-asylum-seekers-together-event-tickets-644843272587
21 June 2023: In Sheffield: I WAS NOT BORN A SAD POET, INTERVIEW (A CONVERSATION) WITH LORAINE MASIYA MPONELA
Presented by: Migration Matters Festival
Event Information
The session will look at how hard it is to speak out and how different it is when you do. Attendees will leave with an understanding at a visceral level of the inhumanity of the asylum system.
The session will resonate with those who know the reality; asylum seekers and those who work in the sector and will give hope that we can together create change. It will also educate those who want to learn more. There will be interviews, readings from my book of poetry I was not born a sad poet and participants questions and share their reflections.
 | SHEFFIELD: City of Sanctuary (map) |
 | Wednesday 21st June, 2023 |
 | Door time: 5:00pm, Start time: 5:30pm |
 | Film: 12A |
There’s a free option at the bottom of the paid ones.
Here’s the link: https://www.wegottickets.com/event/578722/
22 Jun 2023 City of Sanctuary: Refugee Week: Poetry Readings with The Other Side of Hope Magazine
Date: 22 Jun 2023
Time: 19:30-20:30
Venue: online
To mark Refugee Week, we are delighted to host an evening of poetry readings from poets published by The Other Side of Hope. Register your place now.
The Other Side of Hope is the UK’s only literary magazine edited by migrants and refugees platforming migrants’ and refugees’ writing, and is the UK’s first Magazine of Sanctuary.
Join poets and authors from around the world for an evening of literary delight.
Speakers will include:
Malka Al-Haddad
Amir Darwish
Anne Collins
Loraine Masiya Mponela
Anna Giokas – Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants
Fuad Alsohli
Registration is free, but you are encouraged to support the magazine by buying a copy.
Click here to register your free place.
23 June 2023: London: “You can see me, but I don’t exist” Exhibition-in-a-Book Launch
Please join us in the Photographers’ Gallery Cafe Bar and Bookshop to celebrate the publication of “You can see me, but I don’t exist.”
Fri, 23 Jun 2023 18:00 – 20:00 BST
Location: The Photographers’ Gallery 16-18 Ramillies Street London W1F 7LW
To mark Refugee Week 2023, Women for Refugee Women’s End Detention group, for women with experience of immigration detention, are launching their second campaigning action.
“As you will all know, Mitie is one of the main providers of detention centres in the UK, including Derwentside which is the main detention centre for women. And they make huge profits from doing so.
Many well-known brands, such as Ikea, Sainsbury’s and Bravissimo contract Mitie for their services and are therefore inadvertently causing great harm to people seeking safety. Using Mitie is also at odds with these companies’ stated public support for refugee and women’s rights.”
They would love your support with this action. You can:
Download their campaign toolkit here
Write to Ikea, Sainsbury’s and Bravissimo using their easy email action – it takes 30 seconds!
Support their action on social media
Their End Detention group want these companies to know that: ‘Being detained is harmful and lonely. It affected us mentally and physically. It takes you away from your family, and kills your spirit. We are human beings, like everyone else. Will you stop working with Mitie, who profit from our heartbreak and pain?’
Read more here: https://www.refugeewomen.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Mitie-Toolkit-2605.pdf
23 June 2023: In Nottingham: Hostile Environment, Artful Living
A 1-day conference on sanctuary and the creative arts.
Blurring the boundaries between critical academic practice and creative intervention, this 1-day conference asks how creativity can be employed to resist and circumvent the actively ‘hostile environment’ promoted against people seeking sanctuary and of lived refugee experience within the UK. The day will consist of a series of talks, workshops, networking activities and creative activities offered by academics, creatives and organisations, in which people of and not of lived refugee experience are invited to participate together. The day will be of interest to researchers, creatives, support organisations, activists and anyone interested in countering our hostile environment with creativity and compassion.
The day will include a free lunch courtesy of the Syrian Vegan Kitchen, and will conclude with a comedy gig from refugee-led comedy collective No Direction Home (also bookable as a separate event at 5.30pm; see Nottingham Refugee Week listings).
This event was reported on East Midlands News: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001nbzl/east-midlands-today-evening-news-24062023
This is a very useful booklet from the Nottingham University website: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/hrlc/documents/2023/refugee-week-newsletter-2023.pdf