27/09/2024: Study Day – Borders in Focus (University of Sheffield)

Over the last two decades, the border zones of the EU have been characterised by an intensified system of control and surveillance. Migration and border policies have contributed to an increasing death toll of refugees fleeing war, instability and extreme poverty. Likewise, as a result of EU policies, refugees have to constantly negotiate their mobility and immobility: despite having already travelled thousands of miles, they find themselves trapped in border zones (in Spain, Italy, France and Greece), waiting months and even years before continuing their journeys. 

This event looks at how refugees are forced to live in a continuous limbo between illegality and precarity in which they can neither work nor possess basic human rights. How do they navigate the violence of the state and the criminal organisations that take advantage of their plight? This roundtable asks how we should talk about the ongoing atrocities and human rights violations at these border zones, about those who have died and those living in perpetual exile, without ignoring their agency or further perpetuating the exploitation of their knowledge and experience. 

This study day hosts a group of people who have intimate knowledge of these issues and they will share their experiences during the discussion and multimedia presentations. 

Details: 

University of Sheffield, Jessop West Room 2.85 OR online 

Registration: https://forms.gle/u2wgUKRCvk4oAB798 

Organised by Dr. Sophie Watt, Dr. Amanda Tavares and Dr. Peter Watt 

Funded by the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust 

Programme 
9.30am: Registration / Welcome 
10am: Initial remarks 
10.30-12.30pm: Roundtable 1 – Living conditions at borders 
12.30-1.30pm: Lunch break 
1.30-3.30pm: Roundtable 2 – Representations of migration 
3.30pm: Questions from audience 
4pm: Situation in the UK 
4.30-5pm: Closing remarks 

Speakers 
Roundtable 1 – Living conditions at the borders 
Maïte Echarte (Activist, Mec de la Rue, Melilla, Association for Children’s Rights) 
Marisa Amaro (Activist, Associacio Geum Dodou, Melilla) 
Dr Andrea Antoniou (Researcher, University of Sheffield, Greece) 
Antonio Sempere (Journalist and photographer, Ceuta) 
Claire Millot and Pascaline Delaby (Activists, Salam, Calais and Dunkirk) 

Roundtable 2 – Representations of Migration 
Aso Mohammadi (Journalist, researcher, UK, Kurdistan, Iran) 
Laurent Prun (Photographer, activist and artist, Boulogne) 
Dr Amanda Tavares (Researcher, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa) 
Ambrose Musiyiwa (Researcher, Coordinator of the Forced Migration and the Arts network, University of Manchester) 

Situation in the UK 
Melinda Momartinez (Coordinator of the advocacy team, City of Sanctuary, Sheffield) 
Zaniar Sarseifi (Refugee and activist, UK, Iran)