"The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space."
- Italo Calvino, from Invisible Cities
"The aim is to create, here in Britain, a really hostile environment for illegal immigrants."
- Therasa May, Home Secretary and future Prime Minister, 2012
In 2019 I was invited to participate in a 5-day walk to raise awareness about indefinite detention of asylum seekers in the United Kingdom. Organized by the Gatwick Detainee Welfare Group and Canterbury-based Refugee Tales, the walk brings together approximately 150 current and former UK Immigration Removal Centre volunteers and 20-30 former detainees, as well as other local and non-local supporters. Each day’s walk of about 12 miles takes place along a system of public rights-of-way that exist throughout the UK and which in many cases date back to medieval times. Each year’s route is different and is connected in some way to the history and contemporary issue of immigration in the UK. In addition to organizing and promoting the walk, Refugee Tales has published four volumes of stories of asylum seekers. The photographs and short films that I have made are a response to the annual walk and to the stories included in the Refugee Tales books. By giving voice to those who have suffered through the UK’s asylum process and through still photographs documenting the work and the UK’s border architecture, my work aims to reveal the damage that the system has caused and shift the public’s attitudes about immigration. As of 2023, the UK remains the only country in Western Europe that allows for the indefinite detention of asylum seekers.
