King's academics, students, staff and alumni are sharing their stories and hosting events to mark Refugee Week, a UK-wide festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary.
To mark Refugee Week 2024, members of our King's community are speaking about their personal experiences and ways in which they are helping refugees work and study in the UK.
'I owe it to my baby - to raise him away from war and insecurity'
Dr Aqeel Abdulla, a Lecturer in Culture, Media and Creative Industries in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities, reveals what it means to be unable to return to his home in Syria, 15 years after leaving, and how he took on the role of Deputy Director of King's Sanctuary Programme because he always feels a sense of duty towards fellow refugees and asylum seekers.
I was playing with my first born, who was then a baby, at the beach in Spain in 2017 and it suddenly occurred to my wife and I that we were having fun in the same sea that swallowed thousands of fellow Syrians, and thousands more from across Asia and Africa who were simply trying to find safety for themselves and their family members.
Dr Aqeel Abdulla, Lecturer in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities and Deputy Director of the King's Sanctuary Programme.
King's colleagues on their lives before and since being displaced:
Dr Olha Myshakivska, a Research Fellow in the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, and Iryna Peretiazhko, a Research Assistant in the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, share what home means to them, insights into their experiences in the UK and what their lives were like in Ukraine before they were displaced by the war.
It was a carefree and happy existence, filled with endless possibilities.
Iryna Peretiazhko, Research Assistant, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine
The King's student helping refugees secure stable employment
Third year Political Economy student Deepi Sahota highlights her experience of helping refugees find employment through her work for the Breaking Barriers organisation. She outlines how supporting refugees to find work represents a crucial step in helping them to rebuild their lives, foster community connections and feel at home in the UK.
Finding employment isn't just about securing a job; it's about finding a sense of home. It represents a crucial step in the journey toward rebuilding lives, fostering community connections, and ultimately feeling truly at home in the UK.
Deepi Sahota, Third year Political Economy student
Five years later: the Dr Monica Malik Refugee Bursary
King's alumni Dr Monica Malik reflects on how a refugee bursary that she set up five years ago has empowered postgraduate refugees to attend King's. In an InTouch magazine article, she shared stories from some of the extraordinary students she has supported and explained the part education has played in her own journey.
I wanted to give people who had lost so much a chance to rebuild their lives and to let them know that someone cares.
Dr Monica Malik
Events at King's during Refugee Week
Monday 17 June: The Fifth Workshop on the Economics and Politics of Migration hosted by King's with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and organised by Cevat Giray Aksoy, Seyhun Orcan Sakallı, Pierre-Louis Vézina.
Tuesday 18 June and Wednesday 19 June: A workshop on 'Visual Justice: Empowering modern slavery victims through legal design' hosted by The Centre for International Governance and Dispute Resolution in the Dickson Poon School of Law. It features speakers Professor Philippa Webb, of King's and Twenty Essex, Ishaani Shrivastava, of Devereux Chambers, and Avril Sharp, Kalayaan
Thursday 20 June: A Celebration of World Refugee Day featuring a talk by Dr Abdulla on the topic of representation, misrepresentation and self-representation of refugees and asylum seekers in the arts, plus an African drumming workshop led by Allan Kerr from Shumba Arts, a Devon-based participatory African art group.
