Home Office Values

‘At the heart of the unwelcoming western response to contemporary mass migration is a deep fear that an endless torrent of foreigners is about to arrive. This may or may not be realistic. Although global asylum claims are dropping, and have dropped substantially in the UK since a peak in 2002, people from other countries are going to continue to claim asylum in the UK.

There is a blind hypocrisy in our immigration rules that attempt to establish whether an individual has any ‘right’ to be here, to refuge. It is not so long since the era of white man’s major migrations, particularly the massive migrations of settlement to the Americas and Australia, but also the smaller colonial migrations to the rest of the globe, which continue in post-colonial form. White man went by force of arms, uninvited and unwanted, to exploit and displace indigenous societies as he chose. This ‘new’ world became his. Now, all these years later, Britain is experiencing an influx of foreigners, arriving uninvited and unwanted. Of the few that manage to reach the UK, we allow some to stay. But a great many are turned away.

While photographing asylum seekers I heard Scottish people say many things about asylum seekers. That ‘they come to Britain because it’s a soft target’. That ‘they get benefits, flats, mobile phones, tellies, when we get none’. That it’s ‘all very well to want an open borders policy, but who would pay for them?’ That ‘the government should have the guts to send them all home.’ That ‘there is no room left in the UK for anyone else’. That ‘if people want to come, that’s fine, but they should behave like us’. I heard talk of ‘these f*cking seekers.’ Some, like this last person quoted, were openly hostile. Others were more understanding. None were welcoming. And none of the people quoted here had met a single asylum seeker.

I also met a great many Scottish people who have met asylum seekers. Neighbours and teachers, community and health workers, and other people who for one reason or another had come in contact with asylum seekers. These people were concerned and compassionate, and willing to give their time to help and assist these newcomers to Scotland. But they were a minority.

Most people in Britain don’t know who asylum seekers are. Most people in Britain don’t know what asylum seekers look like. Most people in Britain don’t know why asylum seekers have come here. What people in this country think is that ‘they’ are here, that there are lots of ‘them’, that ‘they’ are expensive, and that ‘they’ probably cause trouble. It is easy to think of someone as your enemy if you do not know his face. It is easy to despise someone if you do not know their story. It is hard to be compassionate to someone you only hear about, but never meet. These photographs are an attempt to remedy that in some way.’

Robin Taudevin, December 2005
Independent Photographer


Robin Taudevin, aged 29, drowned while free diving off the coast of East Timor on 14th May 2006.

Robin’s Fund is responsible for his photographic archive. His photographs are an important and unique resource and are available for use. He remains the only person to have footage of a dawn raid. His work is free to non-profit organizations.

Robin’s Fund is an awareness raising trust and has several exhibitions and collaborative projects touring around the UK. If you know of a space or project that would benefit from Robin's photographs, please contact us.
See www.robintaudevin.com for full details or contact robinsfund@peacemail.com

Robin’s Fund receives no formal funding and is dependent upon the generosity of those affected by Robin’s work.

Welcome to Scotland

Gezim is from Albania. When photograph was taken, in November 2005, he was ten and had spent more than half his life in Scotland. He speaks with a distinct Glasgow accent. In 2003, his family qualified for an amnesty giving asylum seekers leave to remain if they had made a claim before October 2000 and spent up to four years awaiting the outcome of that claim. Several of the people photographed in this exhibition claimed asylum shortly after October 2000 and seven years later are still awaiting the final decision from the Home Office.

Seeking Asylum is not a Crime

Seeking asylum is not a crime. On the contrary, people claiming asylum are exercising a right which is enshrined in international law. The right to reject claims remains the prerogative of the host country. Taking up to and beyond seven years to process such claims and detaining claimants and their children like criminals is ethically questionable.

This exhibition features recorded extracts from the acclaimed production petrified paradise by a moments peace theatre company.

petrified paradise is an intense and demanding theatrical experience that fuses promenade and studio theatre with intermedia performance to present a powerful interrogation of physical, emotional and social imprisonment.

A radical piece of documentary theatre petrified paradise looks beyond opinion and policy to the human cost of Britain’s increasingly hard-line approach to immigration asking its audience not just to listen but to feel.

Through mapping together people’s experiences in a number of distinct spaces, fragmented and silenced stories are told through a moments peace’s unique style that distorts the line between audience and performer, interviewer and interviewee and leaves all involved disorientated, challenged, invigorated.

“The physical look and feel of this show is unforgettable,
as is the passion with which it is delivered…”
Joyce MacMillan, **** The Scotsman

Youngsters at Kingsway Court, November 2005

Campaigns

In September 2005, the Vucaj family was forcibly removed from the UK. The case attracted a lot of attention as representing the plight of the greater asylum seeker community. A documentary film made of the Vucaj family shortly after they returned to Albania was shown widely in Glasgow and to MSPs at the Scottish Parliament. Here, the film is shown at a public meeting.

Close friends of Saida Vucaj watch the documentary film following her deportation.

A group of seven girls from Drumchapel High School conducted a high profile campaign throughout much of 2005. Their actions led to substantial press coverage of asylum seeker issues, predominantly that of stopping ‘dawn raids’ and deportation of asylum seekers. The ‘Glasgow Girls’ won the Scottish Campaign of the Year Award in 2005. After they visited the Scottish Parliament twice, the first Minister, Jack McConnell promised a ‘protocol’ that social and education services would be consulted before the removal of a family. This ‘protocol’ is yet to be put into action and the Glasgow Girls remain active campaigners. Here, Toni, Jennifer, Ewelina, Amal and Agnessa clasp hands during a press conference.

Dawn Raid

Here, an asylum seeker watches for immigration vans from his window as he did every morning from 5am. In October 2006 the Kingsway Amnesty Group began their daily dawn vigils keeping watch to protect the families of Kingsway from the trauma of ‘dawn raids’.

Shortly after 7am, 20th September 2005, an Albanian asylum seeker and her baby are strapped into a separate van from her husband, Gezim, by immigration officers. ‘Dawn Raids’ are favoured by the Home Office as they are scheduled early in the morning when asylum seekers are most likely to be at home, and will be foggy as they are awakened from deep sleep.

Gezim is taken to a caged van in handcuffs and accompanied by flak-jacketed police. The family had been in the UK for just over a year. No one knew who had been taken that morning until this photograph was shown. For this community, as for many other dispersal communities in the UK, having friends and neighbours disappear is a way of life.

After the Dawn Raid