| 17th
June 2005
Glastonbury Events To Celebrate Refugee
Courage
LONDON, June 17 (UNHCR) -- Programmes celebrating
the courage and spirit of the millions of people forced to flee
their homes will take place at this year's Glastonbury festival
(25-27 June) as the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) again joins music
lovers on the vast fields outside Somerset.
The refugee agency plans to mark its third year at Glastonbury
with a series of activities giving Glasto-goers opportunities to
learn about the courage of people forced to flee their homes.
UNHCR's 'courage to leave there / courage to be here' campaign
at this year's festival aims to connect the global with the local
and encourage the 150,000 campers at Glastonbury to learn more about
asylum seekers and refugees and how they are ordinary people caught
in extraordinary situations.
"While every refugee's story is different and their anguish
personal, they all share a common thread of uncommon courage - the
courage not only to survive, but to persevere and rebuild their
shattered lives," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees António
Guterres.
Revellers visiting UNHCR's Glastonbury stand (J1/O5 - right of
the Pyramid Stage) will be able to put themselves in the position
of a refugee forced to flee their homeland for asylum in the UK.
"Becoming a refugee is not an easy choice, people endure enormous
hardship before and after taking the difficult decision to leave
their homes and their countries," said Bemma Donkoh, UNHCR's
representative in the UK. "Most refugees flee to neighbouring
countries, but sometimes they cannot find protection and must seek
asylum elsewhere, often risking their lives countless times in search
for security."
The refugee agency plans a 'lives behind the lies' wall at Glastonbury
displaying some of the media coverage that has appeared in the UK's
press over the last few years illustrating the negative perceptions
asylum seekers and refugees must face once in the country.
Myth-busting fortune cookies will give Glasto-goers tasty facts
on refugees and asylum seekers and a chance to understand the sense
of helplessness confronting refugees as they wait in exile for the
opportunity to one day return home.
"With the majority of refugees in the UK arriving from Iran,
Somalia, Iraq, China and Zimbabwe, countries experiencing incidents
of human rights abuse or conflict, it is simply unwarranted for
asylum seekers to be portrayed as 'bogus' without truly looking
into their stories and conditions in their homelands," Donkoh
declared.
"Our myth-busting 'lives behind the lies' panel and refugee
fortune cookies will give visitors to UNHCR's booth a more accurate
picture of the refugees forced to seek sanctuary - that they're
real people like you and me in extraordinary circumstances,"
she said.
The number of people claiming asylum has plummeted in recent years,
with applications in the UK down more than 60 percent since 2002.
Despite the dramatic fall in asylum claims, many observers still
believe the opposite, and do not realise that people often must
seek asylum in Europe when they cannot find protection nearer to
home.
In the last week the Burundian government labelled thousands of
asylum seekers "illegal immigrants" and drove them back
to Rwanda, an example of how governments sometimes ignore their
obligation to protect people forced to flee, and why sometimes refugees
may seek exile outside their home regions.
The UK has benefited greatly from refugees who sought safety here.
Fish and chips are a British tradition nowadays, but were actually
introduced by 17th century refugees fleeing Portugal. Karl Marx
and Sigmund Freud were refugees here, as was the inventor of the
Morris Mini and Morris Minor, Alec Issigonis. Co-founder of M&S
was Polish refugee Michael Marks, while the Ghost fashion label
is led by Tanya Sarne, the daughter of Russian exiles.
UNHCR's participation in Europe's biggest open air music festival
will also see it join forces with its partner agency, the Refugee
Council, at a special event at 19:51 hrs on Saturday, 25 June to
celebrate the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention. Over the years the
international accord has saved the lives of more than 50 million
people. Saturday's 19:51 hrs event, in the Left Field tent, will
include films and speeches about the Geneva Convention and refugees.
End
UNHCR Media Contacts:
Peter Kessler
tel. 020.7932.1020 or mobile: 07775.566.127
Clare Graham
tel. 020.7932.1022
Ahmed Momoh
tel. 020.7932.1021
mobile: 07765.253.053
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