Why Refugee Tales?

Without Refugee Tales and the Gatwick Detainee Welfare Group (GDWG) from which it grew there would be no Saffron Stitch.

Our tailor has lived experience of immigration detention and was detained three times over five years before being recognised by the Home Office as a Refugee. Once detained, a person can be re-detained, and re-detained without limit. People who are detained indefinitely do not have a release date to count down to; they can only count up. This has a devastating impact on mental health with more than one person a day requiring treatment for self-harming in UK detention centres. In UK detention centres, between November 2016 and November 2017, there were 10 deaths.

A visitor from GDWG visited our tailor in Brook House immigration removal centre and, after his release, indirectly introduced him to our Director.  Having walked beside our tailor, for much of his waiting journey in the UK, our Director is now a Trustee of GDWG and enjoying working with them to try to improve conditions, inform policy and challenge negative images of people affected by the immigration process.