Building a Social Movement for Inclusive Asylum
Today I attended the From Fortress Europe to Sanctuary Europe conference held at Oxford Department of International Development.
As part of Refugee Week 2016, the Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford City of Sanctuary, the national City of Sanctuary movement, and the British Red Cross together ran this special two-day conference. With a focus on welcoming refugees through their journey towards protection and integration, the event brought together academics, NGO practitioners, civil society groups and refugees from across Europe to engage in action-oriented mutual learning. The event sought to encourage dialogue and collaborative learning in relation to advocacy, practices of integration, and social and economic inclusion. Moving beyond describing current challenges, it to identify good practices and opportunities for social change, focusing on how communities can become more welcoming, and how to break down the social and economic barriers refugees can face.
The session I attended was:
Plenary: The Challenges of Accessing Protection
Speakers:
Gemma Gillie, Head of Media, Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders UK
Katia Bianchini, Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Religious & Ethnic Diversity, Goettingen
Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, Representative, UNHCR UK
Moderator: Alex Fraser, Director of Refugee Support, British Red Cross
Here are a few of the photos that I took:
