![]() ![]() ![]() Viewed as aiding and abetting the work of smugglers, it meets with draconian responses from the authorities. But there is a climate of intimidation in France against those who help migrants and try to make up for "the deficiencies of the state". "We are not criminals, we are just people without homes.we had to flee our homes because it was not safe in Afghanistan." Numerous acts of solidarity and simple human kindness give a glimmer of hope despite the brutality at the hands of the authorities: a volunteer who takes a sick and distressed asylum seeker into her home to escape the cold a train conductor who lets three young Afghan brothers, all under 14, travel without passports and wishes them luck volunteers who serve as many as 200 lunches at a time to migrants at feeding stations in Calais throughout the bitter winters. I was particularly struck by the youth and courage of the asylum seekers involved many of them are just kids of 14 or 15, and they are at pains to protect their families from the reality that their journey has brought little improvement in their lives: "If this is Europe, if I knew it was like this, I wouldn't have come." Many have come via Greece, where conditions are notoriously inhumane.īefore its forced closure in September 2009 the makeshift camp known as “ the jungle” was home to nearly 800 Afghan asylum seekers, who endured what one migrant described as “slave conditions”, subjected to arbitrary arrest, sprayed with tear gas and constant harassment by the police. Migrants tell of smugglers extorting up to $13,000 from desperate families who sacrifice everything to send their sons to Europe to provide them with the chance of survival and a better life. As one young man said “Even in a refugee camp in Darfur we were better off than being here in France. They endure beatings, torture, loss of loved ones - only to suffer unimaginable hardships on the journey and rejection and injustice on arrival in Europe. In the play we follow the stories of half a dozen young men and boys from different war torn countries including Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea and Vietnam. Sonia visited Calais for several days interviewing migrants and it is their voices, read verbatim by volunteer actors ,that make the play such a powerful and moving testament to human perseverance and the triumph of hope over experience. ![]() Her latest production examines the European dimension of immigration and asylum, weaving together factual information and stories gathered from talking to Calais migrants seeking to enter the UK, the people that helped them - and the people who resented and deplored the migrants’ presence. Sonja Linden, author of the play and founding artistic director, set up the Ice and Fire theatre company to explore human rights stories through performance education, outreach and participation. The faded grandeur of the world's oldest surviving music hall - ornate ceilings and barley sugar columns contrasting with wooden floor boards and peeling plaster - offered an atmospheric backdrop to the free performance. Ice and Fire’s new play, " On a clear day you can see Dover ", played to a packed audience of around 300 people of all ages and backgrounds at Wilton's Music Hall in the heart of East London, home to generations of London's migrants.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |