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29th
September 2005
"Not
the Ideal Home Show" awarded "Best Stand" at Labour
Party Conference
BRIGHTON,
September 29 (UNHCR) - Prime Minister Tony Blair awarded the UN
refugee agency (UNHCR) "Best Stand: Space Only Category"
at a ceremony Wednesday night during the Labour Party's annual meeting.
UNHCR's
Party Conference stand, "Not The Ideal Home Show," was
the agency's first ever effort to highlight the lives of asylum
seekers and refugees in the UK and abroad at a political party conference.
The
agency's prize-winning stand is a canvas tent airlifted to the UK
from one of UNHCR's relief operations and refitted to resemble a
typical paint-peeling bed-sit normally used in Britain to house
asylum seekers awaiting decisions on their asylum claims. It was
recognised by judges for successfully portraying the message of
loneliness and desolation, as experienced by many exiles.
Prizes
were awarded by the Prime Minister, who was accompanied by Deputy
Prime Minister John Prescott and Mrs. Cherie Blair.
Mrs.
Blair had visited UNHCR's stand earlier in the day while touring
the exhibition. She took part in a computerised quiz on refugee
and asylum issues and reviewed the agency's awareness-raising videos.
"With
'Not the Ideal Home Show,' we're trying to show the reality behind
the lives of asylum seekers and refugees," said Bemma Donkoh,
UNHCR representative in the UK.
"Only
a very small fraction of the world's refugees and asylum seekers,
barely 2 percent, come to the UK," Donkoh said. "Mostly,
they come here when they can't get the protection and assistance
they need close to home, but all too often their predicament is
misunderstood."
"Refugees
are fleeing persecution and gross abuses of human rights, the same
scourges that the world pledged to eradicate at the end of the Second
World War, but which all too often thrive today in countries experiencing
instability and conflict," Donkoh stressed.
More
than 220 stands participated in the exhibition at the Labour Party
Conference, which is attended by more than 12,000 party activists
and closes today.
The
large number of stands at the conference presented the organisers
with difficult choices in the four categories that received awards.
"As
in previous years, the competition was fierce, with extremely high
standards of design and creativity, as well as the ability to get
out the exhibitor's message effective," the judges said.
In
addition to awarding UNHCR a plaque and a bottle of champagne in
the "Space Only Category, the Prime Minister awarded "Best
Stand: Delegates Choice" to RNID, which campaigns on behalf
of the UK's deaf population. Cancer Research UK received "Best
Stand: Shell Scheme Category" and Liverpool City Council received
"Best Stand: Organisers' Choice."
"Britain
is not the ideal home for refugees, most want to get back to their
homelands or get the assistance they need in their countries of
first asylum, said refugee agency spokesman Peter Kessler, who received
the award on behalf of UNHCR's London office.
The
refugee agency's stand, designed by Hartnell Creative Communication
Ltd. of Dorset, plays upon various stereotypes and exaggerations
often seen in the press which purport that Britain is the "asylum
capital of the world" and that refugees in the UK live on "Easy
Street."
In
addition to the quiz, which has been administred to many hundreds
of politicians and party activists to test their knowledge about
the lives of refugees and asylum seekers, UNHCR also showed television
ads depicting how persecution and conflict engulfs communities,
forcing people to suddenly become refugees.
The
number of asylum seekers arriving in Britain has dropped by almost
two-thirds since 2002, with only 15,000 arriving in the first half
of the year. France currently leads industrialised countries receiving
asylum seekers, followed by the USA, with the UK trailing a distant
third.
Visitors
to the refugee agency's stand learned that Chad has received far
more refugees this year than the UK, for example, and that asylum
seekers would like to contribute to their host communities but cannot
do so due to restrictive regulations that force them to remain dependent
upon state aid.
The
refugee agency's party conference stand will return to Blackpool
for the Conservative Party Conference next week following its tour
at the Lib-Dem Party Conference a week ago and the Labour Party
Conference.
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