Refugee Tales 10th Anniversary Festival of Walking

The Refugee Tales project launches its 10th Anniversary Festival of Walking with a reception in the UK parliament on Tuesday 8 July. At the event, people with lived experience of immigration detention will join leading writers and political figures in calling on MPs to end the UK's policy of indefinite detention.

Co-organised by Professor David Herd in collaboration with Anna Pincus and colleagues at Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group, Refugee Tales was founded to call out the fact that the UK is the only country in Western Europe that detains people indefinitely under immigration rules. Modelled on The Canterbury Tales, the project shares the stories of people who have experienced indefinite detention in the context of large-scale public walks. Offering a language of welcome, Refugee Tales calls for a future without detention and, as an urgent first step, an end to indefinite detention.

At the Parliamentary launch, Nobel Laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah, prize-winning novelist Kamila Shamsie, actor Niamh Cusack and human rights campaigner Baroness Shami Chakrabarti will join members of the Refugee Tales Self-Advocacy group in addressing cross-party MPs.

The launch will be followed by a Festival of Walking which will circle London as it follows the Capital Ring. Starting in Southwark, the walk will salute those who have shared their stories in calling for change. It will also welcome back writers, musicians, filmmakers and journalists who have demonstrated solidarity with the project's call, including Dina Nayeri, Patience Agbabi, Bidisha, Neel Mukherjee and Marina Warner. Across the five days of the walk, a series of panels led by people with lived experience will state clearly why, as a matter of urgency, detention must end.