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| Images of Exile |
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Currently over 800 asylum seekers are held in detention, a policy condemned by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). Those who are granted refugee status or temporary leave to remain face a growing tide of racism, including violence, which has resulted in the death of some refugees. Some politicians in Europe have used the rise of racism as a means to justify further restrictions on asylum seekers, so punishing the victims and not the offenders. Meanwhile the richer nations of the West continue to support the oppressive regimes which cause refugees to flee. Arms are sold for immense profits by Western governments, fuelling conflicts in the developing world. For refugees, the sale of landmines has been the most insidious aspect of the arms trade. Despite the slow movement towards a worldwide ban on the sale and manufacture of landmines, tens of millions of anti-personnel mines remain in place, maiming and killing every day. Landmines force people to become refugees and then prevent them from returning home. |
 A Vietnamese refugee family in the bunk which has been their home for over two years. Their children were born in the closed centre. Over a million refugees left Vietnam after the end of the war in 1975. Sham Shui Po closed centre, Hong Kong. 1988 The nations that have profited so much from the sale of landmines now show little inclination to provide the resources to clear them. Images of Exile offers an insight into the hardships which refugees face, not only in the countries from which they flee, but also in the countries where they had hoped to find safety. |
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