refugee tales
Literature Cambridge supports Refugee Tales
Literature Cambridge is sharing space
We are sharing our webpage and broadcasting writers’ stories of those who experience indefinite immigration detention in the UK and those who work with them. Many other organisations including the Royal Society of Literature are doing the same. Over 28 days, you will find tales here, showing the fundamental power of literature to bring about change.
Abdulrazak Gurnah reads The Arriver’s Tale.
Maxine Peake reads The Appellant’s Tale.
Sameena Zehra reads The Lorry Driver’s Tale.
Maggie MacCarthy reads The Barrister’s Tale.
Andrew French and Mariam Haque read The Migrant’s Tale.
Zoe Wanamaker reads The Student’s Tale.
Jade Amoli-Jackson reads The Friend’s Tale.
Niamh Cusack reads The Detainee’s Tale.
Kamila Shamsie reads The Lover’s Tale.
Christopher Eccleston reads The Witness’ Tale.
Raphael Sowole reads The Chaplain’s Tale.
Julia Hesmondhalgh reads The Dependant’s Tale.
Olivia Laing reads The Abandoned Person’s Tale.
Caroline Bergvall reads The Voluntary Returner's Tale.
Bernadine Evaristo reads The Social Worker’s Tale.
Sorcha Cusack reads The Embroider’s Tale.
Shobu Kapoor reads The Support Worker’s Tale.
Amelia Bullmore reads The Interpreter’s Tale.
Patience Agbabi reads The Refugee’s Tale.
Jonathan Cullen reads The Visitor’s Tale.
Neel Mukherjee reads The Soldier’s Tale.
Lesley Sharpe reads The Walker’s Tale.
Inua Ellams reads The Unaccompanied Minor’s Tale.
Nasser Memarzia reads The Lawyer’s Tale.
Sinead Cusack reads The Mother’s Tale.
Nabil Elouahabi reads The Deportee’s Tale.
Nima Taleghani reads The Smuggled Person's Tale.
Refugee Tales
The UK is the only country in Europe that detains people indefinitely for administrative purposes and without judicial oversight under immigration rules. Rooted in the work of the Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group, and supported by the University of Kent, Refugee Tales shares the tales of those who have been indefinitely detained in immigration detention. To highlight the call for a 28 day time limit for immigration detention, Refugee Tales is releasing 28 tales online – one each day over 28 days on the website www.28for28.org. Writers and actors lend their words and voices to asylum seekers, refugees and people in indefinite detention. Literature Cambridge supports the Refugee Tales call for an end to indefinite detention.
Through Refugee Tales, writers collaborate with asylum seekers, refugees and people in indefinite detention who share their stories. Taking Chaucer’s great poem of journeying – Canterbury Tales – as a model, writers tell a series of tales as they walk in solidarity with detainees. As they walk, they create a space in which the language of welcome is the prevailing discourse.
They have published two powerful books of Refugee Tales, with contributions by Patience Agbabi, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Kamila Shamsie, Ali Smith, and many others.
