Refugee Week Hong Kong celebrates asylum seekers, raises awareness about their challenges

17/06/2024

Refugee Week Hong Kong this month aims to highlight the challenges and creativity of asylum seekers through music, poetry and other events

Asylum seekers and refugees fleeing persecution and violence in their home countries face many obstacles in Hong Kong. There are employment restrictions and barriers to receiving healthcare, while the process of getting settled in a third country can drag on for years.

Many experience immigration detention during their time in the city, where the conditions are poor and access to legal support limited.

To raise awareness of the challenges they face, Refugee Week Hong Kong will be held from June 17 to 23.

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The event is part of a global initiative that started in Britain in 1998. Now in its third year, Refugee Week Hong Kong is a way to celebrate the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and other people seeking sanctuary.

refugee week hong kong celebrates asylum seekers, raises awareness about their challenges

Food that showcases the talents and diversity of the city's asylum seekers will be served as part of Refugee Week Hong Kong. Photo; Grassroots Future

This year's theme, Our Home, is an important one, says Enver Solomon, CEO of the Britain-based Refugee Council and Refugee Week co-chair.

"Home, and the security and sense of belonging it provides, is easily taken for granted," says Solomon.

"It is so intrinsic to a person's understanding of the world, it is hard to conceive of life without it. Yet every day, due to war, conflict and persecution, men, women and children are forced from their homes and on terrifying journeys in search of safety."

Refugee Week Hong Kong coordinator Tegan Smyth says the event, which includes film, music, theatre, dance and poetry, is a chance to share art and culture in a community and to connect with people from different backgrounds.

"We are so busy that often we cannot see strangers as friends. We hope this celebration of music, movement, poetry, art and fashion will give us an opportunity to see each other as strangers who may become friends," says Smyth, who is founder of Grassroots Future, a charity that supports refugees in Hong Kong.

Highlights include "From Strangers to Blessings", a World Refugee Day event at The Vine on June 15, and a Refugee Film Festival by UNHCR throughout June.

Poet and asylum seeker John Outsider in Mui Wo, Lantau, Hong Kong. Photo Fiona Sun

An open mic poetry session on the theme of migration will be held on June 19 and features the launch of Misplaced Words of a Displaced Man, a collection of poems from Iranian asylum seeker John Outsider.

On June 21, a "Hope Away from Home" cultural celebration with the Christian Action Centre for Refugees will be held, while the closing ceremony with dance, food and film takes place at the Africa Centre, in Tsim Sha Tsui, on June 22.

For further details, visit the Refugee Week Instagram page.

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