Poet, editor, performer and educator, Laila Sumpton, works on creative writing projects that explore human rights issues. In this blog written by Laila, she focuses on the poetry and photography project, “You can see me, but I don’t exist” which looked at the neglected rights of refugees who are living in limbo in the UK.
‘Solidarity’ – a word I will never tire of using, since I was told in my first NGO job that it was too ‘activisty and left wing’ and therefore could not be used in fundraising communications. That quarterly newsletter was about eliciting the right amount of sympathy, not empathy, and encouraging donations – not systemic change. I know that some organisations are best placed to use their expertise to deliver projects, programs and services, not lobby and seek an upheaval of detrimental policies – but I will never understand a rights organisations’ aversion to solidarity – something we all need live by if we are to support refugee and migrant rights in the face of an increasingly Hostile Environment in the UK and across Europe.
Refugee rights globally and nationally
Refugee Week, which takes place annually in June, is a week aligned with World Refugee Day that took place on the 20th of June 2024. Refugee Week is currently celebrated in the UK, Greece, Hong Kong, Malta, Taiwan, Berlin and Australia to focus on community building, arts and activism for refugee rights. Globally, there are many organisations and artists ensuring that this solidarity lasts all year – ensuring we remember that seeking sanctuary is a right. The political and press narratives, particularly in the UK and Europe, centre around numbers, illegality and resource draining – distract us from the absence of safe routes and a backlog intentionally created through a lack of political will. Individual stories are lost completely, and the reality of what it is to live in limbo whilst your sanctuary status is decided remains a mystery to most. Refugee Week centres work by sanctuary seeking artists, as well as art work about refugee rights – it is an essential way to reclaim the narrative.
According to UNHCR data 120 million people worldwide have been forcibly displaced, that is 1 in every 69 people on Earth and nearly double what it was a decade ago. With the numbers doubling, our support and awareness raising also has to increase. The European tabloid press narrative is skewed into a belief that all of the world’s refugees are heading to their continent, when in fact over half of those forcibly displaced are internally displaced and of those who do leave their home countries 69% are hosted in neighbouring countries.
As a poet who has studied Human Rights, I constantly look for projects where I can support writers of all ages and backgrounds to explore their own stories, as well as rights issues. I work alongside charity staff to support sanctuary seekers, who are keen to tell their stories and campaign for refugee rights, to share their unique voices and experiences. We make a supportive space where these stories can be witnessed, understood and shared, and where they can control the narrative be it through performance, print, or both. It is often a first step in feeling like your story and voice matters and should be heard. These workshop spaces are a mix of language exploration, connection across language and culture, laughter, recipes, manifestos for change and harrowing tales. A vital tonic to the increasing prejudice in society and politics.
The past UK Government have implemented a Hostile Environment Policy towards sanctuary seekers in 2012, and political parties continue to campaign for even more deterrents. Even now, whilst waiting for a decision on your asylum status, you cannot work and are given around £7.00 a day to live on in one of the most expensive countries in Europe. Without the support of charities destitution is the only option. In 2023, 128,786 people were waiting for an initial decision on their application in the UK, and of these 65% had been waiting for more than six months (Home Office, ‘23). Many of the sanctuary seekers I have worked with have been in limbo for years, some of them declared stateless and unable to have any stability for over 8 years.
Exploring refugee journeys through poetry and photography: ‘You can see me but I don’t exist’
After several years of working with JRS UK leading creative writing workshops for sanctuary seekers – both those awaiting a decision on their status, and those who had been refused, I was glad to work on a new project exploring ‘limbo’ in collaboration with sanctuary seekers and photographer Alan Gignoux and curator Jenny Christensson. Alan had taken numerous blurred portraits using a camera obscura of sanctuary seekers across Europe in France, Belgium, Austria and Sweden – where one young Afghani man said ‘you can see me but I do not exist.’ He had applied for asylum three times and was still waiting for a decision, living in limbo, feeling like a number – all things that our writing groups at the JRS UK centre could relate to.
This quote became the title of our photography and poetry project – where sanctuary seekers in London, Birmingham and Manchester in the UK would work with Alan to co-create their own blurred portraits. Once the portraits were taken, creative writing groups of sanctuary seekers would write their responses to them – ensuring that their voices and experiences of living in limbo would be heard. These groups were led by three poets in the three cities – myself in London working with JRS UK, Malka al Haddad working with Stories of Hope and Home and Baobab Women’s Project in Birmingham, and Ambrose Musiyiwa working with Everything Human Rights in Manchester.
During the project members explored different writing techniques and how we can respond to portrait photography, working as a team to create group poems that reflected the messages about refugee rights we wanted to share. Over eight weeks of poetry sessions the group spoke about the mental health impacts of living in limbo, exchanged stories of homelessness, of having their experience of being trafficked disbelieved by officials, and whilst some members received their status, others were denied, and some were suddenly moved out of the city to a town far away where they knew no one. Thanks to the tireless advocacy of charity staff some members were able to return to London permanently – they had support at every stage of their journey. Some group members were regular writers of stories and poems in English or their first language, others had never written creatively or performed.
The project was a journey about journeys, and here are two poems from the London Writers Group, written in response to the portraits Alan took of their fellow writers, (the poets have chosen to have their work published under the pen name London Writers Group):
Limbo is
a waste of time
discrimination,
a state of nowhere,
a person who has lost their dignity,
the destruction of life,
drowning but not dying,
feeling cold and sleeping badly,
a dark night with no stars or moon -
only the sound of frogs,
waiting for a miracle -
to have your future and status,
what an experience.
London Writers Group
Dear Britain,
I thought I would be free and happy when I came here.
You do not know the suffering of people seeking asylum.
Do you know that we are the people who are always in limbo?
We do not have any proper station to go to.
Do you remember you promised to offer human rights to people like me?
As I have lived here for longer than I did in my country,
can you give me the feeling of home? Can you be
as warm in your heart as my mother’s hugs?
Wishing you the best success,
let us build this country with love and respect,
Your Unwanted Citizen.
London Writers Group
Sanctuary – a grassroots project
As political parties in Europe continue to move to the right I wish ‘building our country with love and respect’ were a real part of regional politics, rather than occasional examples in some Cities of Sanctuary. This is an initiative giving cities and the organisations that make them, like libraries, schools, businesses, theatres, local councils and universities, a series of adaptation goals so that they can be more welcoming and supportive of local refugee communities. When a critical number of organisations adhere to the City of Sanctuary guidelines – the city is designated a City of Sanctuary. Whilst politicians haggle over deterrence and border protection, cities themselves can take action and respect refugee and migrant rights from within.
More grassroots initiatives like this coming from communities, artists, schools and organisations need to find new ways to campaign for refugee and migrant rights and ensure that stories from sanctuary seekers themselves are heard. Across Europe the mainstream media and politicians from a variety of parties are using the language of ‘hoards’, ‘swarms’, ‘invasions’, ‘illegal’, ‘bogus’ and ‘criminal’ when speaking about migrants and refugees. Another narrative must counter this and be heard. Our ‘You can see me but I do not exist’ exhibition of portraits and poetry were shared in libraries and galleries in Birmingham, Manchester and London alongside performances and workshops. Audiences were moved, eyes were opened and there was a huge sense of pride amongst all the writers and portrait subjects about being seen and heard on their own terms in public spaces. Often these projects stay within an empathetic echo chamber, whilst it is important to build solidarity in the face of such aggression from the Government and public – I always wish that these projects could (with more funding and connections) break into the mainstream and truly change the narrative.
It is naïve of me to hope that if more people could listen to these stories of limbo they would find solidarity, policies would be changed, however, there is too much power on offer from division and weaponising prejudice. Until we can create a society where xenophobia and dehumanising refugees and migrants does not sell papers or win votes, the people who should listen will turn away from a truth that is inconvenient and may engender shame. The campaign for refugee and migrant rights begins with solidarity and though it does seem eternal and deeply challenging, I hold onto the fact that many impossible campaigns and shifts in social norms have been won – and we have keep going. As one of the writers said ‘Our secret power is our thoughts.’
Our secret power is our thoughts
we think that not existing
is invisibility and not to exist.
It’s so boring being lost.
we know a lot about stagnation,
look forward to crossing limbo
look forward to thinking about life -
you want to do something
but you are stuck, stuck, stuck.
No one sees our stagnation
we wait for what does not exist.
Our secret power is our thoughts.
London Writers Group
What you can do
- Read, watch and listen to more refugee stories by people of refugee heritage, share these with your networks.
- See what your organisation can do to become a space of welcome and sanctuary, check out City of Sanctuary for ideas.
- Know the facts about the situation surrounding the right to sanctuary in your country, be ready to challenge misinformation and stereotypes when it is safe to do so.
The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are solely those of the blog post author. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of Global Souths Hub and/or any/all contributors to this site.
About Laila
Laila Sumpton is a poet, editor, performer and educator who works with schools, hospitals, museums, galleries and charities on a wide variety of poetry projects. She co-founded the arts and education organisation Poetry Vs Colonialism and is an associate artist with intergenerational charity Magic Me.
Laila co – edited ‘Where We Find Ourselves‘ an anthology from Global Majority writers published by Arachne Press with fellow poet Sandra A Agard. She has been commissioned by Tate Modern, Poet in the City, the Tower of London and the Royal Free Hospital amongst others and has been published in numerous anthologies and magazines including Ambit and Modern Poetry in Translation.
