Refugee Tales. Manchester: Comma Press, 2016. 160 pp. ISBN: 9781910974230 £8.75
Published: 1 Jul 2016
Since the start of time, displacement caused by warfare and destruction has plagued humanity. From the Second World War to the present, the word refugee has been a hot button issue within the political arena and is often used disregarding the individuals to whom the word refugee refers. Refugee Tales is a collection of stories of refugees’ real journeys and afterwards once they arrive. This is a medium in which to provide some of society’s most vulnerable individuals the opportunity to share their stories and their struggles with the masses, and for voices so commonly silenced to be heard.
Fear, death, resilience, hope and hopelessness are a few of the recurring emotions appearing throughout the book’s pages. In the first story, The Migrant’s Tale, the reader hears the story of Aziz, a refugee from Syria, who describes his treacherous journey across the Mediterranean to Europe. For 16 days Aziz travelled in an overcrowded boat without food or water, arriving in Italy only to be detained, deported back to Syria, and forced to make the journey once more. Another account tells of a man who, after 28 years of paying his taxes in the UK, is thrust into immigrant detention for months based a mere tip-off that the man may be there illegally. Later on, readers are given a rare glimpse of what life is like for asylum seekers who are thrust into the world of human trafficking. One story tells of a slave in Ghana who escapes to the UK only to become a slave once more, moving from “van to warehouse… warehouse to the van,” working 18 hour days. He contacts the Home Office in the UK for help, but is subsequently imprisoned for six months and then detained. In distress, the refugee pleas, “I thought you would help me.” These stories of endurance and stubborn hope, as recounted by some of society’s most vulnerable individuals, will leave the reader both shaken and inspired.
In a world where the combative political discourse and rhetoric over refugees often dehumanizes them and downplays their plights, it is easy for us as the public to become desensitized to refugees as a whole. After reading Refugee Tales, the word refugee begins to take physical form, becoming more tangible in our minds. More than a collection of stories, this book is a call to action for society to protect refugees and their rights; and after reading Refugee Tales the reader will be inspired to do so.
Refugee Tales is published by Comma Press and can be purchased in hard copy or eBook on the publisher’s website for £8.75, with all profits benefitting the Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group and Kent Refugee Help.