Refugee Tales

Afterword: The Refugee Tales Walking Inquiry into Immigration Detention

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21827/ejlw.12.41236

Keywords:

asylum, detention, hostile environment, walking

Abstract

The purpose of this afterword is to provide an update on the recent actions of the Refugee Tales project against the background of new developments in UK policies on asylum and immigration. The afterword reports on the parliamentary launch of the Refugee Tales Walking Inquiry into Immigration Detention. It then considers the implications of the UK government’s proposal to offshore asylum processing to Rwanda and, more broadly, of the new powers to detain and deport established by the Illegal Migration Bill. The afterword details the development, process, and findings of the Walking Inquiry and shows how those findings relate to and extend the remit of the official Public Inquiry into ‘the mistreatment of individuals who were detained at Brook House Immigration Removal Centre in 2017’. In conclusion, it comments on the importance of Refugee Tales’ practice of walking, as a process of collective action and deliberation, and as counter to the politics of hostility.

Author Biography

David Herd, University of Kent

David Herd is Professor of Poetry at the University of Kent and co-organiser of the project Refugee Tales. His most recent collection of poetry, Walk Song, was named a Book of the Year by the Australian Book Review. His critical history, Writing Against Expulsion in the Post-War World: Making Space for the Human, will be published by Oxford University Press in September 2023.

Published

2023-09-12

Issue

Vol. 12 (2023): EJLW

Section

Refugee Tales

Copyright (c) 2023 David Herd

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