Open Culture: No Borders

Open Culture: No Borders is a project demonstrating solidarity with refugees and asylum seekers, as an ongoing response to the UK government’s ‘Hostile Environment Policy’.

The policy has involved a slew of regressive legislations, intended to create a deliberately challenging environment for migrants to settle, most recently their Refugee-Ban Bill (or ‘Illegal Migration Bill’).

In the process, we are seeing cruel and inhumane approaches to the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers, the use of provocative language intended to create division and the removal and adaption of laws which offer protection of human rights for all. 

“The Government's asylum plans are not just morally bankrupt, they're completely unworkable and won't stop refugees from risking their lives to seek safety. We are seeing more of the same failed approach - one that has done nothing to stop the tragic loss of live in the Channel. These plans will lead to tens of thousands of refugees being detained across the country, left in limbo and misery, including the unaccompanied children and families we work with every day.”

Beth Gardiner-Smith, CEO, Safe Passage International

The platform was founded as a statement against the Anti-Refugee Bill (/ Nationality and Borders Bill) in October 2021, with thirty-two artists coming together to produce a 22-track multi-genre V/A release, event and risograph poster series. All proceeds - £1,600 – went to Kent Refugee Action Network, a charity who work with unaccompanied children seeking asylum, helping them to settle through education and support.

Volume Two

This year we are back, collaborating with over forty global creatives to stand against hostility, advocating for an open culture. This will involve the release of a multi-genre compilation, sale of limited-edition t-shirts and an event in June. All proceeds will go to Safe Passage International, a crucial charity who help refugee children to reach a place of safety and reunite with family without risking their lives. They also campaign for the need to open more safe routes to enter the UK.

Hear the launch show, which features a conversation with Safe Passage’s team alongside tracks from the upcoming compilation:

Key Facts

• April 2022 saw the passing of the Anti-Refugee Bill. The new system introduces a tiered policy automatically denying the ability to apply for asylum for those who have arrived by ‘irregular routes’.
  

• There are currently almost no safe and legitimate routes available for those who are forced to flee, following the closure by successive Conservative Governments of two major safe routes to the UK - Dublin III which allowed for refugees to reunite with family members in the UK and the Dubs scheme which relocated unaccompanied children to the UK.
  

• In March, the government put forward a new Refugee-Ban Bill, aka the ‘Illegal Migration Bill’, which by the home secretary’s own admission is “more than 50%” likely to break the Human Rights Convention. It will prevent any person arriving via an irregular route from claiming asylum, withdraw their right to appeal through automatic exclusion, or reappeal once deportation has taken place, and will prevent the Human Rights Act from blocking their deportation.
  

• Plans are being set in motion to transfer the processing and detention of asylum seekers to Rwanda. There are many alarming potential consequences of this owing to Rwanda’s poor human rights record, abuse of LGBTQIA+ people and use of excessive force against refugees, amongst other factors.
  

• The government hold power to detain a person indefinitely. Many are detained in squalid and overcrowded conditions, with the average wait being between one to three years (Refugee Council, 2021). For example, in December 2022, 4,000 people were held in Manston asylum centre, which held capacity for 1,600, resulting in a diphtheria outbreak.
  

• In the year ending September 2022, the UK received 5,152 applications for asylum from unaccompanied children. Young people seeking asylum in the UK can be subject to a host of issues such as incorrect age assessments, racist attacks and trafficking. Recently it was discovered that over two hundred asylum seeking children have gone missing from the same Home Office accommodation in Brighton.

Sources

https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/information/refugee-asylum-facts/

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jan/28/child-migrants-racially-abused-home-office-hotel-brighton-criminals 

https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/issue/liberty-responds-to-government-evaluation-that-hostile-environment-policies-disproportionately-impact-people-of-colour/

https://www.refugee-action.org.uk/a-decade-of-hostility/

https://www.jcwi.org.uk/illegal-migration-bill-2023-briefing

https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/latest/news/thousands-seeking-asylum-face-cruel-wait-of-years-for-asylum-decision- fresh-research-shows/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/19/uk-judge-rules-that-age-assessment-of-asylum-seekers-was-unlawful https://time.com/6187390/uk-rwanda-asylum-seekers-deportation/

https://www.rescue.org/uk/article/claiming-asylum-uk-facts

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jan/23/uk-minister-admits-200-asylum-seeking-children-missing-home-office .uk/government/speome-secretary-statement-on-the-illegal-immigration-bill