Fleeing war and seeking refuge, a young Syrian child lies dead on a Turkish beach
This image requires no comment. Fellow human beings are currently being forced to make an unknown journey, risking their very lives as the only hope of refuge and a secure future for their children. The images are not new, they have been witnessed for centuries and they challenge our thoughts, and pose the question of our responsibility. How should we relate ourselves towards this?
This event will help us to explore that question. It is useful to begin by remembering that such circumstances do not just happen ‘to them’. While the scale may differ, not long ago they were with us. There is no division them and us, ‘we’ are in it together.
This event begins with the screening of the short BBC documentary, ‘Reunited Lives’, which reminds us that such events, albeit at at much reduces scale, do not just happen somewhere far away. The film looks back at refugees from the north (Ballymurphy, Ardoyne) going south in the early 1970’s.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion involving Briege Voyle (Ballymurphy) who was featured in the documentary, Agim Kryeziu a refugee from Kosova whose been living here some 20 years, Aza Ali Ahmad a recently arrived refugee from Mosul, northern Iraq and local activist and journalist Eamonn McCann.
The event will be chaired by Bernadette McAliskey.
Venue: The Nerve Centre, Admission Free