FORCED TO FLEE

Refugee Social Services will be hosting Forced to Flee - a mini-film festival and a series of activities happening in venues in and around Durban to commemorate World Refugee Day on June 20.

The focus this year will be on creating awareness around the stories of forced migration and refugees. The commemoration will marry film; photography; visual art; music; craft and discussions.

The core event will take place at Denis Hurley Hall, Diakonia Centre on World Refugee Day, June 20 with supporting events throughout the week following World Refugee Day, from June 23 to 27 taking place at the Alliance Française; Durban Holocaust Centre; Project Gateway in Pietermaritzburg and ARCHIE’S Cafe Diakonia Centre– as well as in the waiting rooms of the Home Affairs (Refugee Reception Centre: Che Guevara Road, which is the one participating venue not open to the general public); the Refugee Social Services; Lawyers for Human Rights; and Refugee Pastoral Care

“We plan to use the opportunity of World Refugee Day to highlight the contribution of the refugee community to our society,” says Yasmin Rajah, Director of Refugee Social Services. “Each event in our Forced to Flee mini-festival will be free of charge and open to the public. All are welcome as we seek to build a stronger sense of compassion, understanding and acceptance among all South Africans for people who have faced great turmoil and hardships in their homelands, forcing them under threat of persecution to seek asylum in our country.”

June 20 at 11h00: The opening film will be screened at the Diakonia Centre. The film is L’Escale (The Stop Over) Set in Athens, an Iranian immigrant, Amir, has a modest flat which has become a place of transit for migrants. But Greece is only a stopover, all of them hope to reach other Western countries. They find themselves stuck at Amir’s hoping for ID documents, contacts and the smuggler to whom they might entrust their destiny (2013, in French / Persian with English subtitles).

June 23 at 11h00: A second screening L’Escale will take place in Pietermaritzburg at Project Gateway.

June 23 at 18h00: At the Alliance Française in Durban, there will be the screening of the movie Illegal – a 2010 Belgian drama directed by Olivier Masset Depasse which follows the story of Tania and her 13 year old son Ivan: two illegals living in Belgium. Mother and son are separated and Tania is placed in a detention centre. She will do anything to be reunited with her son (French with English subtitles).

June 24 at 19h00: At the Holocaust Centre, Playfair Road on Durban’s beachfront, there will be a screening of Harbour of Love. This 2011 documentary is billed as a heartbreaking but life-affirming documentary of love, hope and unsolved mysteries. In 1945 Irene, Ewa and Joe were among the 30,000 survivors rescued from German concentration camps and bought to the peaceful harbour town of Malmo in Sweden – where their lives began again. (English and Swedish with English subtitles).

Man on Ground, to be screened in waiting rooms, tells the story of Ade and Femi, two Nigerian brothers who end up in Johannesburg (In English).

There will be two exhibitions: Dialogue among Civilisations and Living Spaces of Refugees and Migrants.

Dialogue among Civilisations is an initiative by Art for Humanity which involves collaboration between artists and poets who were invited to create work on the theme of identity, land, object and belief. Elements of the exhibition can be seen at Diakonia; the Durban Holocaust Centre; Durban Refugee Reception Centre and Alliance Française.

The second exhibition features 15 poignant photographs of Living Spaces of Refugees and Migrants (including South Africans) in a photographic training project supported by Oxfam Australia.

On World Refugee Day at Diakonia Centre as part of the opening programme and to complement the art and films, charming French-Congolese singer Rene Tshiakanyi will perform some of his original acoustic ballads.

There are approximately 9.8 million refugees in Africa. In 2010 it was estimated that South Africa alone hosted some 270,671 refugees and asylum-seekers who are legally entitled to residence in the Republic of South Africa. The majority are from the Great Lakes regions of Africa, such as DRC, Burundi, Rwanda and Somalia.

Refugee Social Services (RSS) serves as the social implementation partner of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In accordance with its vision, RSS strives to be a global leader in providing holistic quality and innovative service to assist asylum seekers and refugees who are in possession of legitimate documentation from the South African Home Affairs. It prioritises focusing on the most vulnerable in the community.

The festival is presented by Refugee Social Services in partnership with Alliance Française; Durban Holocaust Centre; Arts for Humanity; International Organisation for Migration; Diakonia Centre; Refugee Pastoral Care; Lawyers for Human Rights and Union of Refugee Women with support from Oxfam Australia and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

For more information, call 031 310 3578 or e-mail info@refuggeesocialservices.co.za