An exhibition titled “Voices from across the borders”, was put together by Nawaf Alenazi and me, supported by Global Link- an NGO based in Lancaster. The exhibition was open to public from 5th July for a month.

Since 2015, Lancaster in United Kingdom, has been home to over115 asylum seekers from countries including Syria, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Nigeria, Trinidad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.The first cohort of asylum seekers arrived in Lancaster in December 2015, many of whom have escaped escape war and persecution in their own countries but to date there is little documentation, until now to understand their backgrounds and histories. This photographic exhibition attempted to address this gap by engaging with those who have been granted leave to remain as well as those who are awaiting the outcome of their applications.

Our approach was to deconstruct perceptions about the refugee community by focusing on individualising the narratives of those who have been reduced to the singular collective identity of being a 'refugee'.The intention is to locate the ‘voice’ of the individual and demonstrate the plurality of their narratives, without taking recourse to simplified discourses of universal or bare humanity and helplessness of victimhood.The exhibition was covered by Lancaster Guardian: http://www.lancasterguardian.co.uk/news/exhibition-aims-to-give-refugees-a-voice-1-8648836